2008 Spring Clockworks

7/31/2019 2008 Spring Clockworks

1/12


2/12

From the PresidentMARK SCHULMAN

On prior occasions, I have discussed with you inthis brief communication the reinvention ofGoddard in which your college has been

engaged over my five-year tenure. (Has it really beenthat long? Has it really been that short?) One importantaspect of that reinvent ion is to see ourselves as others seeus .

As youl l reca ll from what I wrot e last time, this hascome up in reference to the future of progressive highereducation (about which Ill write more in futurecolumns), especially in reference to the roller coasterride of Antioch College over the last six months. In thisClockworks, I want to discuss how others see us througha somewhat different filter.

Im reading a very interesting book, Acad em icTurnarounds: Restoring Vitality to Challenged AmericanColleges and Universities, edited by Terrence MacTaggart.Dr. MacTaggart, who has had a long and distinguishedcareer in higher education administration, served for nineyears on the New England Association of Schools andColleges (NEASC) Commission on Institutions ofHigher Education, chairing the commission for three

years. In that capacity, he has been intimately familiarwith det ai ls of our recent history, in which NEASC, ourregional accrediting body, plays a (lets just say) majorsupporting role.

In Academic Turnarounds, which was published in2007 and based on research involving more than threedozen institutions, here is what he has to say aboutGoddard:

And some academic turnarounds require a significantdismemberment. Trustees of Goddard College faced theprospects of going bankrupt or selling off the campusand its programs. Beset with a low student-facultyratio and a relatively expensive full-time faculty, thetraditional undergraduate program could not be sus-tained. There were questions regarding continuedaccreditation. Ultimately, the college shut down itsundergraduate program in favor of a low-residencyalternative for older students. Closing the traditionalprogram and dismissing its faculty saved the college,and today it is a going concern.

MacTaggart arguesthat restoring financialhealth (Stage I) is a neces-sary but not sufficient stepin a turnaround, and we cansurely acknowledge thatclosing the ResidentialUndergrad-uate Program

was a bold , if painful andcontroversial, plan to movetoward fiscal stability andlong-term sustainability.But there are at least twomore stages in an institu-

tions turnaround transformation, according toMacTaggart:

Stage II: branding and marketing to re-establishor reconfigure (or both) the colleges reputation; and

Stage III: academic revitalization, which is char-acterized by substantive, even radical, change, aime d at acomplex and deep revision and re-visioning of the insti-tutional identity.

Suggesting that a major problem for most dis-tressed institutions is that they remain frozen in Stage I,in which they resemble neighborhood conveniencestores, MacTaggart describes through case studies andilluminates through extensive analysis what must be doneto accomplish a transformation.

I cant say for sure whet her Goddard is in Stage I I orStage III: maybe both simultaneously? But I am certain

we have not been, are not , and wil l not be stuck in StageI. While we will maintain our vigilance of our financialsituation, we will at the same time go beyond being agoing concern to become a growing concern, sustain-able, socially responsible, academically rigorous, and inno-

vative. Our reinvention will in some ways take us back to thefuture: Goddards coming as one of the premier institu-tions of progressive higher education into a bright,exciting, collaboratively-constructed newness.

WHILE WE WILL MAINTAIN OUR VIGILANCE OF OUR FINANCIAL SITUATION, WE WILL AT THE

SAME TIME GO BEYOND BEING A GOING CONCERN TO BECOME A GROWING CONCERN,

SUSTAINABLE, SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE, ACADEMICALLY RIGOROUS, AND INNOVATIVE.

CLOCKWORKS WINTER/SPRING 2008


3/12

16 CLOCKWORKS WINTER/SPRING 2008

alumni/aeportfolio

OPEN RANGE: POETRY OF THE

REIMAGINED WESTLaurie Wagner Buyer (MFA 01)

This formidable collection of contemporarypoetry embraces the West of personal con-

viction. Buyer and co-editor WC

Jameson have assembled the work of 20

writers whose poems compellingly and

memorably represent the modern West.

Ghost Road Press (2007), $13.95

VALOR: FILIPINO WORLD WAR IIVETERANS MEMORIALCheri Gaulke (GGP 78)

Over 120,000 Filipino soldiers fought in

World War II as the U.S. Army Forces in

the Far East, yet Congress stripped the

Filipino veterans of the benefits they had

been promised. The Filipino World War II

Veterans Memorial in Los Angeles tells the

veterans story. This book documents the

content, design and historic context of the

memorial designed by Gaulke.

Midmarch Ar ts Pre ss (2007)

DRESSED: A CENTURY OF

HOLLYWOOD COSTUME DESIGNDeborah Nadoolman Landis (RUP 73)

From the lavish productions of Hollywoods

Golden Age through the high-tech block-

busters of today, the most memorable

movies all have one thing in common: they

rely on the magical transformations ren-

dered by the costume designer. Academy

Awardnominated costume designer Landis

showcases 100 years of Holly-woods most

tantalizing costumes.

Collins Design (2007), $75

WINTERS WAR

Matthew P. Mayo (MFAW 03)

Niall Winters returns from selling his fall

herd to find his ranch a burned ruin, hisuncle dead, his wife missing, and the bliz-

zard covering any clues with a whole lot of

snow. He heads into the raging maw of the

storm determined to confront this demon

and salvage the remains of his familys shat

tered lives. But he has no idea of the horro

that await him.

Robert Hale, Ltd. (2007), $24.78

INTUITION RETREAT: YOU HAVE ALTHE EQUIPMENT ... LEARN HOW IT

OPERATESMax Highstein (RUP 73)

Intuition Retreatis a wonderfully multi-

dimensional program. The workbook, CDs

with exercises and music, and the intuition

cards come together in way that makes this

a sophisticated and powerful tool for devel

oping intuition.

Desert Heart Multimedia (2007),

$84.95

THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASIONRichard Maxwell (RUP 70) and

Robert Dickman (RUP 70)

Every great leader is a great storyteller,

according to Harvard University psycholo-

gist Howard Gardner. In The Elements of

Persuasion, Maxwell and Dickman teach yo

how to tell stories. They show how story-

telling relates to every industry and howanyone can benefit from its power.

Collins (2007), $19.95


4/12

1CLOCKWORKS WINTER/SPRING 2008

alumni/aeportfolio

WAR PSALMMimi Moriarty (MFA 05)

In this book of poems, Moriarty brings

chilling visions of war and its consequence

growing out of a family history into the

present moment.

Finishing Line Press (2007), $12

BIRDS HORN & OTHER POEMSKevin Rabas (MFA 02)

In his first collection of poems, Rabas

lingers over romantic themes as well asmusic and urban and rural landscapes. As

an accomplished musician, he has the abili

ty to translate sound into words. His are

some of the best jazz poems around, and in

this book he illuminates the Midwestern

musicians culture.

Coal City Review Press (2007), $10

HIJAS AMERICANAS: BEAUTY, BODYIMAGE, AND GROWING UP LATINARosie Molinary (MFA 02)

Young Latinas grow up dealing with con-

flicting sets of expectations about how they

should look, how they should act and how

they should dream. Drawing on the

responses of more than 500 women who

answered an extensive survey, Molinary lays

out the most pressing tensions and obsta-

cles for Latinas around issues like body

image, religion and sexuality.

Seal Press (2007), $15.95

FIT TO BE CRAZY: LIVING WITHLITHIUM AND MANIC DEPRESSION

Je an ne Si ph ro n (G GP 7 3)

This is the story of a personal odyssey; a

near tragedy of one womans attempt to

unravel the labyrinths of her brain. It is a

passionate documentation of the factor

leading to her descent into manic depressio

through a progression of stum-

bling, numbing pitfalls and hit-and-miss

medications until lithium helped her

become mentally well. Sylvia Hopkin

Jost en s Pr in ti ng and Publ is hing (2006)

$22.00

ROSEN METHOD: AN APPROACH TO

WHOLENESS AND WELL-BEING

THROUGH THE BODY

Elaine L. Mayland (ADP 73)This book gives profound insights into the

physical and psycho-spiritual practice of the

Rosen Method. Mayland reveals the philos-

ophy that results in the deceptively simple

words and touch that prove to be the magic

key to unlocking tension held for years in

the body.

52 Stone Press (2005), $15

PRINCE OF THE APPLE TOWNSGary Winkler (IBA 07)

In Prince of the Apple Towns, author

Winkler evokes the rural activism of an

Edward Abbey and the youthful irreverence

of a Holden Caulfield, while covering new

ground in a style and voice that is unmis-

takably his own.

Xl ib ri s, $18.50

Goddard Alumni/ae: Have you published a book recently? Send us a copy to be included in the Alumni/ae Portfolio and donated

to the library! Please send your notifications and books to: Sarah Hooker, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667


5/12


THE VILLAGE OF NGOMANO IS UNLIKE

MANY OTHERS IN RURAL KENYA.

Under the blazing sun, women sit in quietindustry weaving kiondosvibrantly colored

wool bagswhich they sell to he lp support theirfamilies. Several neat, green-roofed buildings dotthe parched landscape. A well draws waterdirectly into the village, providing nourishmentfor the gardens and orchards that were recentlyplanted there. Children spend their days in the newvill age school, and some have plans to attend col-lege.

This picture of a thriving village is a hugecontrast to the village of just a few years ago,when Andy and Jim Clay, graduate students inGoddards Socially Responsible Business andSustainable Communities Program (SBC), firstarrived.

There was no electricity, no plumbing as weknow it, Jim says. There were pit toilets and norunning water. The villagers had to walk half amile to a muddy river to collect water in a con-tainer, a trip that could take hours. For the chil-dren, the future was limited; the village ha d a pri-mary school but nothing for children beyond theeighth grade.

The Clays first learned about Ngomanothrough a group of friends who were hoping tostart a secondary school there. When they trav-eled to eastern Kenya to visit the community,they saw there was more to the situation than a

lack of education.It didnt take long before we realized that a

school wasnt all the village needed. There was nowater, no way to make money, no way to eat , Andysays. Then we learned about Goddards SBC pro-gram.

THE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

and Sustainable Communities Program haslong been offered at Goddard as a concen-tration in the Individualized Master of ArtsProgram. Over the past few years, though,the global focus on sustainability has given

the program a new imperative, one thatdrove Goddard to make a change.

We really felt that the program hadenough substance and merit to be a stand-alone graduate program, says Ann

Driscoll, the programs director, who helpedtransition it to a fully-accredited masters pro-gram in 2006.

Students come to the Plainfield campus twicea year for week-long intensive residencies and

Andy and Jim Clay

have structured theirstudies to address the

long-term needs of

Ngomano, a village in

Kenya. Here: Jim and a

young friend finish a

tour of the new village

school. Inset photo:

Andy, a nurse, treats a

local child.

Through the masters program in Socially Responsible

Business and Sustainable Communities, Goddard

students are finding new solutions to age-old problems.

BY KELLY COLLAR

ChangeAgents of


6/12

then conduct the rest of their studies at home, in close contactwith thei r facu lty advi sors . They st ructure thei r programsaround three interconnected themessocial responsibility, sus-tainability and social justice.

We are in one of the most serious p lanetary times th at weveever had, as a result of globalization, global warming and somereally seriously, deeply entrenched social, political, economicand environmental problems, Ann says. And we need somenew solutions.

She says the SBC program is designed to encourage stu-dents to find entrepreneurial, systemic solutions to the prob-lems that exist today.

For Andy and Jim Clay, that meant designing their studies

around the village of Ngomano and creating strategies to help

the village address its problems on a long-term basis. The Clays,

who travel to the vi ll age twice a year, are quick to point out that

this isnt about Westernizing the community; the goal is for the

village to be self-run and self-sustaining. Through their family-

run Clay Foundation, they offered to provide funding for the

project, as long as they could work in partnership with the vil-lage elders.

We would fund the project; we would buy the land and put

up the money, but the village would work with us in building

the buildings, maintaining them and being a true partner, Jim

says. And they a re.Ji ms th es is at Go dd ard fo cu se s on im ple me nt in g th e

Greenbelt Movement in Ngomano. Kenya, among other Africannations, has drastically over-cut its supply of timber, lead-ing to a shortage of wood and widespread environmental prob-

lems. The tree-planting movement aims to produce firewood

and building materials, as well as restore the natural environ-

ment; it also works for womens rights, democracy and peace.Andys thes is focuses on development for the new secondary

school and setting up a fundraising structure that will help ittarget appropriate donors. Practically speaking, my work hasbeen to develop an organization around the school that assuresits sustainability after the original founders are gone, both hereand in Kenya, she says.

Both Jim and Andy, who is a longtime Goddard devotee asboth an alumna and a trustee, have a tangible sense of excite-ment about the changes in the village and the positive differencetheyre making in the world.

One thing is for sure, were going places and accomplishingthings we never thought we would, Andy says. The small vil-lage in Africa has its secondary school, a water delivery system,

crops and two new and growing businesses managed by thewomens v il lage as soci at ion. Theres a lot of hope and optimismthere. And theres a lot here, too.

Like the Clays, Marisa Gubers enrollment in the SBC pro-gram was sparked by a trip outside the United States. Marisahad been interested for years in social initiatives and environ-mental movements, but she was never able to narrow it down toone field of interest. Then she went to South America.

I originally went down for a brief hiking and biking trip,she says, but then ended up being able to stay and work and

Above, Marisa Guber meets a mother-daughter entrepreneur teamin Pisac, a famous marketplace in Peru. Marisa studied ecotourismand sustainable development during a trip to South America.


7/12


research socially responsible business.Specifically, she studied innovative projects in ecotourism and

sustainable development for forests. When she returned to NewYork, she put her growing pass ion into the local green move-ment, taking a seminar on green product design, joining theSustainability Practice Network and getting involved withYoung Women Social Ent rep reneurs.

Today she manages ABC Home and Planet, a Manhattanshop thats part of the larger ABC Home store and sells environ-mentally responsible products for the home.

Its like the antiCrate & Barrel, she says. ABC is really abou tcreating home and sacred space.

Her work with the store has allowed her to explore the manyfacets of socially responsible business practices, from research-ing the companys carbon policy to creating a summer univer-sity for employees on environmentalism and reducing our col-lective footprint.

We live in this culture where everything can be thrown

away, Marisa says. But the whole concept of away is nolonger a reality. There is no away.

A member of the SBC programs pioneer clas s, she says herthesis focuses on how businesses can help individualsbothemployees and consumersbecome more socially responsible.One of the ways this could happen, she says, is for businesses tointegrate social responsibility with their financial goals and tocommunicate their values to the public.

What that means is for business to be a platform for educa-tion, she says, and to take an critical look at where products aremade and who is making them. Once she graduates from theSBC program, Marisa says she may have a future in consult-ingin advising businesses on their green practices and con-sumer education programs.

Im not really a scientist, but I do have communicationskills, she says, and I do have the people skills to digest theinformation and present it in a way that people can wrap theirheads around.

Gyllian Svensson, another student in the SBC program, haswrapped both her head and her hear t around green businesspractices. As co-owne r of The Bobbin Sew Bar and Craft Loungein Burlington, Vermonts Old North End, she focuses on givingnew life to old clothes.

We really encourage people to reuse clothing and craftingmaterials, and to make things rather that purchasing them, shesays. Were really trying to create a community around that.

Customers pay an hourly fee to use one of four sewing machinesand a serger; with tons of materials at their fingertips, they cancome to the shop emptyhanded, sit down at a machine and do aproject.

We have all the tools and materials you would need,Gyllian explains. And almost everything we use in the store isrecycled and was found locally.

Gyllian learned about Goddards SBC program when she wasat a crossroads in her life. Pregnant with her second child anddissatisfied with her job at Planned Parenthood, she says, I waswalk ing down Churc h Street, pondering my fate in li fe whenI came across the Goddard table. Already a 1998 Goddardalumna, she said hearing about the masters program was anepiphany for her.

I thought, this is perfect, because I had always wanted tostart my own business.

She says her shop, which opened last October, has essential-ly become her thesis. The SBC program has allowed her toresearch various aspects of the business before she puts theminto practice, a luxury many entrepreneurs would envy. Theprogram has also encouraged her to look at broader issues likesocial justice, and she has been able to integrate those threads intoher sewing and craft circles. The shop, which Gyllian runs withher best friend, Rachel Hooper, features unusual monthly meet-ings like the anarchist craft circle, queer crafting and stitchand bitch.

The whole idea is getting people together around a craft oran activity, she says, and having an opportunity for conversa-tion and a certain amount of feminism and direct politicalaction.

Like Andy and Jim Clay, and Marisa Guberfellow stu-dents and fellow advocatesGyllian says she is fortunate to be atGoddard, riding the wave of passion for social justice and sustain-ability.

I feel like Im in the heart of this wonderful movementthats growing and thats going to become a necessity for all ofus.

Gyllian Svensson stands in her new shop, The Bobbin Sew Bar andCraft Lounge, which finds new life for old clothes and craft materials.


8/12


AFTER A LIFETIME BEING DEFINED BY HER

FACIAL BIRTHMARK, PATRICIA FONTAINE

EXPLORES THE TRUE MEANING OF BEAUTY.

Moreover she is passionate, leaningtoward her ideas, a word she uses to describehow she encourages people in her writingworkshops t o recognize what is beauti ful in the world a roundthem, recognition they once had, she believes, as children,and need now to heal themselves as adults.

A 2007 graduate of the Individualized Mas ters Programin Transformative Language Arts, Patricia experienced thepotential power of the degree herself. A tidy plan she had toget some chops to augment my writing workshops for can-cer patients was subverted by the end of the first semesterwhen faculty member Ralph Lutz as signed an identity essay,to look at each aspect [of your life] to find your place in theworld: your ethnicity, your geography, where you grew up,

your familys descent, religion, class, spirituality, your physi-cal body.

The essay led the students to probe what they held ontoas their identity: what they had internalized and what hadbecome the baggage they carried, consciously and uncon-sciously, through their interactions with the world.

My tidy plan did not include the culture and history ofhaving a birthmark, Patricia says. And that had been sucha huge part of my identityit was kind of the elephant inthe room.

Patricia is a multiple cancer survivor. She has written abook of poems, Lifting My Shirt, that became part of a trav-eling breast cancer art installation. In 2004, she had a breastcancer recurrence and cancer of the salivary gland. Sincethen, she has been in a free zone. Despite its seemingomnipresence, cancer didnt become her identity.

Im not one of those people who latch on to I must becured or who live in dread, she says. Her philosophy for liv-ing with cancer was to realize she wanted life to take prece-dence. She would live not as a cancer patient or someone inrecovery, but just live.

Her negotiation with her birthmark was different. Formuch of her life, it preceded her in the world and forced her

to develop a charm and effervescence thatwould equal what she thought of as its powerto define her to others. Twenty-five years of

therapy hadnt changed that dynamic. Research into thescholarly and folk history of birthmarks, and pondering andwrit ing about it for her thesis would, producing a body ofwork that she plans to use to help others recognize the cul-tural weight Western definitions of beauty have and theoppressive quality of those definitions.

We si t on a bench in front of the Montpelier police sta-tion to talk. No one goes in or out. The crimes we discuss arepersonal in nature. Were strangers to each other. Autumnleaves are orange on the trees dotting the sidewalks. The cof-fee shop doesnt open for a half hour. The face Patricia turns

to me has a deeply colored port wine stain, the only birth-mark named after a beverage, that runs up the left side ofher neck and extends to the skin of her lower chin.

People react to my birthmark in sundry ways, everythingfrom telling me I really ought to have surgery to why dont Iwea r makeup and cover it up, to kids screaming. Ive beentaunted by older kids, she says. My life experience wasbeing reacted to as a birthmark first and a person second, orso I thought. I created a personality that extended beyondthe non-beauty of my birthmark.

Patricia tested that persona in a face-forward professionteachingwhich she describes as a performance art. Formore than 20 years, she taught a course called Mothers andDaughters in the Womens Studies Program at BurlingtonCollege.

In 1986, women were hungry to talk about the relation-ship, she says. Over the 20 years, the course developedtremendously from women whispering, I talk to my motherevery day, to women actually claiming, My mothers mybest friend.

It was only in writing her thesis that Patricia understoodher delight at being in front of a class.

I was absolutely in control (or s o I thought) of how I was

SkinDeepP atricia Fontaine (IMA 07) is taller than her interviewer. She has short whitehairslightly spikedand blue, blue eyes that hold you in a conversation.Her voice is musical; she is soft-spoken, articulate, giving one the sense thather mind is sharp and her analyses incisive.

BY BONNIE BLADER(MFA 97)


9/12

perceived, she says. I could charm the pants off my stu-dents, and it was only later as a teacher that I became morehumble.

She says her ego took a back seat, and she was able to cre-

ate the kind of environment that allowed her students tolearn what they needed to learn, not what she thought theywere supposed to learn. Patricia had a sense of absolute con-fidence in the classroom, something she did not experiencein a crowd or out in the world.

I could shape that little environment, she says. Thetragic death of her mother in 2004, who, like Patricias sister,committed suicide, took her out of the classroom and intoGoddards TLA program. As both a suicide survivor and can-cer survivor, she knew she had strong areas to explore throughpoetry, she thought, but it wasnt to be. At a certain point inmy thesis, my last advisor said, You know you have to stopwriting poetry and sta rt to work on the memoir, because peo-ple need the stories of your experience.

The advisor was Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, and the storywas not of suic ide or cancer but of the birthmark Patriciahad scrupulously avoided approaching through eitherresearch or composition. Initially, she was devastated. Shehad always thought of herself as a poet.

Id never written memoir, never really explored fiction,

she says, and then I realized the wisdom of her encourage-ment.

The memoir would take what had been in the short-hand of poetry and give it the extended consideration itneeded. She began to create nonfiction postcards to buildthe body of the memoir, while engaging in study she hadlong avoided. Eventually, her lines of inquiry led her to anexus with disability studies, although she needed a term toqualify her own, different status.

The term I used was facially distinct, she says, I amable bodied and facially distinct. I am constantly under sur-

veillance, and thats the crossover into disability studies.Patricia credits writer and friend Eli Clare for the endlessconversations that helped her wrap her mind around thenature of what it means to live disabled, and then move onto disability activism. At some point in th e process of discov-ery, Patricia realized with astonishment that the need for abridge to interrupt peoples aversion to her birthmark wasgone.

My birthmark was back in its rightful placemy skin,she says. Her perennial self-consciousness and semi-con-

scious assessment of herself as a loser evaporated. It justdissolved. I realized, Damn, the raison detre of my identityhas just shifted, and now what?

The now what? for Patricia is to take stock of notesaccumulating in her home in Shelburne. There are piles,there are threads and bunches of piles of threads, she says,and Ive been circling the piles for a month now trying tofigure out which thread to pick up.

Shell begin a new book whose subject only became clear toher on the day we sat on the hard bench in brisk autumn air.

Today ... it just came clearer today. It will be writing

about my experience of finding beauty, trying to find thatuniversal thread and [look at] how people come to termswith what they deem unbeautifu l, she says . How do welocate the sense of beauty that we havethat we rememberwe had in our li tt le child bodiesso that beauty becomesmore accessible, more present, and not something to bebought or contrived, just recognized.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF NATALIE STULTZ LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY,

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT. WWW.NATALIESTULTZ.COM

A multiple cancer survivor, Patricia wrote a book of poems, Lifting

My Shirt, that became part of a traveling breast cancer art installa-tion.

People react to my birthmark insundry ways, everything from tellingme I really ought to have surgery to

why dont I wear makeup and cover it

up, to kids screaming.

N

ATALIE

STULTZ


10/12


A little danger makes life interesting,he says. There are no special wishesgranted for this adventurer, though; hisgreat joy of life comes from working hard and loving it.

His official biographical information records the multi-tude of productions he has worked on and awards he haswonincluding two Emmys and two Cine Golden Eagles as a cinematographer, director of photography, producer,director and sound engineer. He has been especially laudedfor his spectacular cinematography, and his bio includes along list of his films, with highlights such as Stacy Peraltas

Riding Giantsand Dogtown and Z-Boys. Most notably, perhaps,Peter was part of the Oscar-winningcinematography team for A River RunsThrough It, worked for six seasons onThe Larry Sanders Showand four seasonson Survivor, and he was a cameramanfor the official films of the 2002 and2004 Olympics.

He also worked on the extreme skiingdocumentary Steep, which opened intheaters in December, and he hasclimbed most of Mt. Everest for theadventure documentaries To the Top ofthe World, Triumph on Mt. Everest and

Everest: Mountain at the Millennium.I love what I do, Peter says. I have

fun doing it, and I love sharing it.The first American expedition up

Mt. Everest was in 1963, and this,coincidentally, was the year Peter grad-uated from the residential program atGoddard. Growing up in Detroit, henever even saw a mountain until heenrolled in Goddard, but when he

began to enjoy hiking and skiing them inVermont, he says, I certainly didnt real -ize I would be doing that for the rest of

my life.A Goddard seminar introduced him to photography, and

he remembers a man coming to class with a Hasselblad medi-um-format camera; the square-framing approach attractedPeter, especially with the promise of fall foliage to shoot, butas he often says, he didnt see himself doing that forever,eithe r. He was a theater major at Goddard and an avid musicianinterested in developing sound panorama and compositional

soundscapes.

T

here are some people out there that life seems to grant special wishes.At first I thought that must be Goddard alumnus Peter Pilafian (RUP 63).As an adventure filmmaker, photographer, musician, recording engineer,

mountaineer and climber for almost 40 years, Peter travels all over the world.

BY RACHAEL A. M ROLLSON(MFAIA 06)

Peter Pilafian was part of the team

filming the 2002 Winter Olympic

Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

100%Adventure

60s Alumnus Peter Pilafian

Mixes a Passion for Filmmaking

With His Passion for Life.


11/12


This led him to check out an electric music lab atColumbia University. He recounts visiting a room of 20-foot-long computers and meeting Morton Subotnick, a pioneerelectronic music composer, which inspired him to move to

Los Angeles and build his own electronic sound system stu-dio. He began doing sound engineering and recording forA&M Records, where he worked on albums such as TheMamas and the Papas If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Earsand collaborated with Joe Cocker. But in spite of his musicaladventure, Peter says he needed to get out of the studio; heneeded sun and mountains.

In 1976, he found himself working for CBS television aspart of the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition, notonly proving himself as a cameraman but also as a lifesavingmountaineer. When a fellow team member nearly fell fromthe Lhotse Mountain face down a 5,000-foot vertical drop, itwas Peters intuit ion (at 26,000 feet) to secure himsel f anddig in both his axe and crampons, saving them both fromcertain death.

Even with this terrifying experience, the terrain of theKhumbu region in Nepal remains one of his favorite places,and he has been back twice on Mt. Everest climbing andfilmmaking expeditions. His other favorite places includeBali, Peru and the Tetons in Wyoming. But for him the mostastonishing place in the world is the Grand Canyon.

One recent day, Peter says he woke up and felt that anentire lifetime had gone by, and he wanted to reconnectwith h is past. Hed heard about classmates.com and decided tocheck it out, ultimately finding past Goddardites in hissearch. Though he says he had long forgotten all aboutGoddardhe knew it went through a black period and

wasnt even sure the college st il l existedhe was happi ly sur-prised to find some old friends and attended the colleges 2007Haybarn Retreat and annual reunion. Peter says he feltenormously comforted by Goddard and felt that things hadchanged little since the early 60s.

It was like a Hollywood time travel movie, he says. Heeven found his old dorm room, and he remembered the timehe had gone into the woods and cut down four or five youngtrees to create a more appealing dcor for the room.

It was one of those affirmation moments that youre notjust dreaming, it was rea l back then, he says . It was a phys-ical manifestation of the recesses of my murky memory.

He reconnected with musicians he used to play with oncampus before we were human beings and reminisced that

he still had things in common with the friends he had madein the 1960s.

Peter also gave a presentation during the reunion andshowed his film Someday Somebody Will Ski That, which wonthe Peoples Choice Award at the 2006 Barry Corbet FilmFestival (now the Alpinist Film Festival) in Jackson Hole,Wyo. He describes hi s visi t back to Goddard as wonderful,amazing, astonishing, which says a lot coming from a guywho has amazing experiences almost every day.

Currently, Peter is working on a one-hour documentary

about an aerial tram being built for Jackson Hole, which is setto be finished in December for the MegaStructures Serieson theNational Geographic channel. He is also developing a docu-mentary on environmental success stories in wilderness preser-vation in the greater Yellowstone region; the film is meant to bean inspiration for others to see the current progress and pro-mote more visionaries to follow suit.

Peter is on the board of directors for The Alpinist FilmFestival, which was held this year in January. When hes notbehind the camera or on an outdoor adventure, he turns to

his other loves: music and art. Hes been performing withThe Chamber Orchestra as a violinist, and he once won firstprize in the Wyoming State Fiddle Competition. He is alsoworking on an ar t se ries called Hot Ar t, featur ing hi s fineart skills with abstract video footage. His side projectsinvolve working in Alaska on the Iditarod, developing train-ing workshops for the Wyoming Film Commission and beinginvolved with his community in environmental preservation.

He was busy the week we spoke, playing in the snow inJackson Hole. He sa id he was fi lming, but a mounta in andfresh snow sounds like play for this adventurer. Peter says heis always skiing.

This snow stuff is so fleeting its like a shadow, hesays. You have to jump on it. His schedule took him to

Zurich the following week, where he said hed also be sneak-ing in some skiing around film time.

If you are passionate enough about something, someonewill pay you for it, he says , and pass ion seems to dr ive hi swork and hi s li fe . He is pass ionate about music and the out-doors especially mountains. He is passionate about pho-tography and filmmaking. His passions have taken him far.What is his secret?

Wherever you are, he says, be there 100 percent.

Peter filmed humpback whales on a kayaking adventure nearGlacier Bay, Alaska.


12/12


Hammond CarriesTradition throughHer Music

F

ull-time musician, teacher and

performer Lorraine Hammond

remembers sitting on the grass

on the Goddard campus in 1962,

playing her banjo.

I would sit out under a tree

and people would join me, she

says. The same thing happens

now. I was delighted to find other

players in my G1 cycle we play

music together at the residencies.

Lorraine, currently in the

Individualized Master of Arts

Program, has a long history with

Goddard. In addition to a year on

campus from 1962 to 1963, she

returned to complete a bachelors

degree in 1974 in the Adult

Degree Program, Goddards

former non-residency program.

For a masters in folklore and

oral tradition, Lorraine chose

Goddards low-residency program

over Harvard because, as she

says, I realized that I had shaped

a unique life, and I didnt want to

stop everything for a year to get

my degree.

Her active schedule keeps her

busy teaching, touring and per-

forming locally.

I am a tradition bearer, says

Lorraine, who was raised in

northwestern Connecticut, where

she learned traditional ballads.

All my music is about music and

community.

Part of her degree work

involves archiving traditional folk

materials and interviewing folk

players. I care very deeply that

public material should have pub-

lic access, she says.

A multi-instrument artist,

Lorraine also plays the mountain

dulcimer, mandolin and Celtic

harp. She and her husband,

Bennett Hammond, will perform

in Ferrisburgh, Vt., the weekend

of Aug. 2, 2008, at the Champlain

Valley Folk Festival. Visit

www.greatacoustics.org for more

information on her itineraries,

CDs and workshops.

Studying Refugeeswith a NewPerspective

Cathy Nolan Vincevic was

planning to join the Peace

Corps with her husband, Seval

Vincevic, when the Peace Corps

cited a minor medical condition

as grounds to deny her admit-

tance. The sudden collapse of her

plans made her reconsider whatshe wanted to do, a diversion that

ultimately led to Goddard.

I knew I needed more time

to write a memoir, Cathy says.

I had always loved the idea of

Goddard. It was like a beacon on

the hill.

During her undergraduate

studies at Vermont College, Cathy

examined why perpetrators do

what they do, but it wasnt until

she was at Goddard that she wasable to connect her personal nar-

rative of childhood trauma with

the broader scope of refugee

studies. Her relationship with her

husband, a refugee from Bosnia,

was central to this exploration.

Cathy met Seval when they

worked with Americorps in New

Hampshire, teaching art and

reading to at-risk children. Both

were dealing with trauma and

learned to communicate about it

in ways that honored each of

their experiences: a complex

task, only in part because SevalsEnglish was initially limited.

She remembers how their

understanding of each others

histories evolved with the

nuanced insight that comes from

deep consideration. She says that

she explored their similarities

and differences while she was

writing her memoir.

I had to stay true to the

voice that needed to finish the

memoir, Cathy says. The IMAprogram allowed me to do that.

She graduated last August with a

masters in refugee studies.

A RT IC LE S B YCHRISTINE TOTH (MFAIA 07)

Cathy Nolan Vincevic gained firsthand knowledge of the experiences

of refugees through her husband, Seval, a refugee from Bosnia.

Lorraine Hammond, a professional

musician who performs with her

husband, Bennett, is studying

folklore and oral tradition.

todays students

2008 Spring Clockworks

Documents

Transcript of 2008 Spring Clockworks