On the Common

Class of 2024 - Areas of Study

Robin Arnell

Robin is graduating with a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Robin’s Senior Year Research Project saw her develop a stewardship plan that articulates goals and operational activities that will transform her homestead into a working sustainable farm over the next five-years.

Corey Bink

Corey is completing a major in Outdoor Education. For his Senior Year Research Project, Corey studied backpacking expedition travel, design, and logistics. He also created backpacking lesson plans for grade school and undergraduate audiences. 

Bo Bogush

Bo majored in Outdoor Education. Bo’s senior research concentrated on education theory with a focus on anti-racist and multicultural education pedagogies, curriculum design, ethical teaching practices and education power structures.

Autumn-Renee Ann Bragg

Autumn-Renee majored in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Autumn’s upper-level coursework saw her complete an internship on a local farm in which she focused on small ruminants (mostly sheep) with a particular emphasis on lambing.

Madison Aland Colmenares

Mads is graduating with a major in Ecology. Mads explored agricultural and remedial applications for seaweed and conducted cyanobacteria nutrient experiments for Michigan University in the Great Lakes during his Senior Year Research Project.

Jay D’Agostino

Jay completed a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Jay’s capstone coursework included a series of independent studies which explored the importance of livestock in a more sustainable food system, with particular focus on the versatility of rabbits as livestock.

Payton Graham

Payton graduates with a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Her capstone project focused on community coalition-building and social justice organizing in the context of environmental justice.

Aidan Thomas Nilsen Hodges

Aidan majored in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. For his Senior Year Research Project, Aidan started a pastry business making pasteis de nata utilizing local eggs, rye, and dairy. 

Audrey Jacobs

Audrey graduates with a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Audrey spent a year spinning Sterling wool and weaving a poncho in their Senior Year Research Project that set out to explore human connections to sheep & the importance of hand crafts with wool. 

Raphael Katkov

Rafi is a double major, completing a major in Outdoor Education and a self-designed major in Social Ecology.  For his Senior Year Research Project Rafi explored the definition and history of Social Ecology and completed a case study examining how the organisation of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) maps onto different principles of social ecology.

Ro Kelly

Ro is graduating with a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Ro completed upper-level course work that explored how agricultural communities are adapting their practices, economic models and social structures to become more resilient in the face of climate change.

Sarah Kathleen Kennedy

Sarah is completing an Associate of Arts in Environmental Studies. She will spend the summer supporting the Sterling College CSA through her farm-based internship. 

Lily Drew LaFaye

Lily completed a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Lily’s  capstone project titled, Learning to Share, explored the physical, digital, and interpersonal realms in which we learn from and teach one another craft. The final products of this endeavor included a magazine centered around foraged dyes, a video tutorial demonstrating how to spin wool into yarn, and a hide tanning workshop.

Amyas Maestas

Amyas culminated his Associate of Arts in Environmental Studies degree with an internship at Kilt Farm in Boulder, Colorado, where he learned about greenhouse management and drip irrigation. 

Lu Rose Marion-Rouleau

Lu completed an Associate of Arts in Environmental Studies. Lu culminated their degree with an internship focused on dye plants, CSA management, and flower and herb production on the Sterling Farm in Summer 2023. 

Clara Miller

Clara majored in Ecology. Her Senior Year Research Project integrates creative writing, speculative ecology, cosmology, and community building, which was encapsulated in her capstone presentation, “Ecology of a Story.”

Laurie Pépin

Laurie graduates with a self-designed major in Large Animal Health Science. Her Senior Year Research project explored the efficacy of turkey tail tincture in reducing fever and mortality rates of young dairy calves.

Charles Lorenzo Polanco

Charlie is completing a major in Ecology with an emphasis in Natural History. Charlie’s senior research was an assessment of hoverfly pollination in late season pasture flowers, and a general review of the benefits of hoverfly stewardship for agroecosystems 

Forrest D. Reed

Forrest majored in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Forrest completed upper-level course work in cultural and ecological studies with a particular emphasis on plant cultivation and propagation. 

Charles Joseph Seton Riley

Charlie is graduating with a major in Outdoor Education. Charlie’s upper-level coursework explored the field of outdoor education through applied teaching and a field experience in the American Southwest. 

Jack Sawyer

Jack is completing an Associate of Arts in Environmental Studies. Jack culminated his studies with an internship focused on mushroom farming with the Sterling College farm and created a plan to pursue a career in welding.  

Happy Cesareo Silva

Happy completed a major in Ecology. Happy’s upper-level coursework focused on practicing ecology in the field, and investigating holistic management of ecological systems. 

Daniel Weber

Daniel is completing an Associate of Arts in Environmental Studies. This summer, Dan will complete an internship focused on livestock management on the Sterling Farm. 

Anna Weber-Loomis

Anna is graduating with a major in Outdoor Education. Anna’s capstone project prepared her to travel in high mountains and delved into expedition planning, risk management, travel techniques, sewing gear, 

mapping technology, and weather.

Alice Weis

Alice majored in Ecology with a minor in Environmental Humanities. Alice’s  upper-level coursework was an exploration of human connection with ecology, which culminated in the writing of an environmental magical realism story.

Caitlin McKay Westling

McKay majored in Outdoor Education and minored in Environmental Humanities. Her upper-level coursework focused on work in the field, including three field semesters and designing and leading expeditions for teenagers in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. 

Sebastian Maximillian Whitcomb-Paulson

Sebastian majored in Ecology with a minor in Environmental Humanities. Sebastian’s capstone coursework explored the multitude of ways in which humans interact with the natural world and included courses focused on ecology, natural history, and environmental literature.

Susan Elizabeth Witham

Susan majored in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Susan’s capstone work focused on Food, Seed Saving, and the Immigrant Experience. 

Tamar J. Zeevi

Tamar completed a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems and minored in Natural Resource Conservation. Tamar’s capstone project investigated indicator microorganism community composition in activated sludge at the waste-water plant in Newport, Vermont.

Quade Alistair Zimmerman

Quade completed a major in Outdoor Education. For his capstone project, Quade designed and facilitated lesson plans for the Triangle Training Center.