Jaclyn Goddette

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:45 a.m., Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Lebanon, N.H., hospital, is awash in a sea of blue scrubs as more than 100 Colby-Sawyer nursing students arrive and disperse to their assigned patient care units. They never know quite what their long days will bring.

It’s become a routine activity, but donating blood is a powerful reminder of humanity’s interdependent nature. The word “blood” even serves as shorthand for close relationships. Blood donors, of course, are vital to the crucial exchange, but so are the behind-the-scenes people who drive individuals to give. As a relations intern for the Blood Donor Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), sociology major Talia Hardy ’20 of Litchfield, N.H., established connections with community partners to encourage blood donation. In doing so, Hardy learned that relationships are at the heart of hospitals.

Last February, Kevin Richardson ’18 presented to the Board of Trustees as president of the Student Government Association (SGA). The student report is a standard feature of the trustees’ meetings, but what happened next was anything but ordinary. Trustee Tony Librot ’94, CFO of the real estate investment and management company AAM 15 Management in Burlington, Mass., had just accepted an analyst’s resignation. Librot, with his business acumen, sensed an opportunity and asked Richardson to send him a resume. Richardson was hired 10 days later.

Communication studies major Alicia Lacasse ’19 helped capture some of love’s most magical moments while interning at Loon Weddings last semester. Working behind the scenes to get the perfect shots in front of her lens, Lacasse gained professional experience while preserving time so that couples could relive their special day.

Ayla Cordell ’19, a sociology major from West Chesterfield, N.H., interned in D.C. this summer with New Hampshire’s U.S. Maggie Hassan. As a legislative intern, Cordell attended legislative hearings and briefings, conducted tours of the Capitol and served as an interface between the senator and her constituents.

Six months after graduating with her degree in sociology, Kavyaa Rizal ’17 returned home to Nepal to contribute to the country’s social development. She landed a job as a program officer for Women Development Advocacy Center (WDAC), a nonprofit dedicated to helping young women secure sustainable livelihoods. The job means she now spends her time putting the sociology theory she learned at Colby-Sawyer into practice. Her most recent accomplishment? Raising nearly $6,000 in one month to support education in an impoverished area of Nepal.

This summer, exercise science major Katherine Nguyen ’19 interned at the American Medical Center Shanghai (AMC). The AMC was the first Western surgery center to specialize in sports medicine and orthopedics in China. Nguyen, from Lowell, Mass., is on Colby-Sawyer’s pre-physical therapy track and wanted to learn more about the industry by observing China’s integration of Western medicine into its health care practices. After learning through a DNA test that she was not 100 percent Vietnamese as she believed but in fact had Chinese ancestors, Nguyen also wanted to experience the country’s culture. Her internship showed her both where she came from and where she’s heading for a career.

When biology major Marina Good ’19 started working in a biosafety cabinet during her summer internship with biotech company Adimab Lab in Lebanon, N.H., she became acutely aware of how she moved. Cell culture requires sterile conditions, so Good put on gloves, had her hands sprayed down with ethanol and donned a lab coat before getting to the task at hand. She felt like a giant trying to maneuver around her surroundings the first time, but now it feels natural.

Seasons help mark the passing of a year, and Colby-Sawyer’s lucky to be nestled in the middle of New England where four distinct seasons are on permanent rotation.

When nursing major Nate Feleke ’19 graduated from his small boarding school in Maine and came to Colby-Sawyer College, he was guided by a group of student leaders dedicated to helping him make the most of his college experience. Those students were his resident assistants (RAs) in Lawson Hall, and they inspired him to pay it forward.

A love of sports usually begins in a fan’s hometown parks, streets and playgrounds where they learn to play the game, and then they learn to love the teams that represent their state and region. There’s a direct link between home team loyalty and hometown pride, and it is embodied by sport management major Will Hyland ’19.

After the Big Dig buried Boston’s interstate highway, the city put new surface space to good use and created a 1.5-mile ribbon of parks known as the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Environmental studies major Nicole Semeraro ’18, who interned at the nonprofit and took a position there after graduation, cultivates and maintains the plants that make Boston beautiful.

The nervous system is one of the most complex structures in the human body, and it requires a high level of skill and coordination from the specialists who care for patients with neurological disorders. This summer, nursing major Julia Martin ’19 learned exactly what that means during an internship at Maine’s largest hospital.

The art of cinema is a bit like an extended magic trick. Both depend upon a suspension of disbelief and a carefully crafted performance to make the pretend seem real. But like any magic show, a lot of work needs to happen behind the scenes to bring the illusion to life. As a location manager, Colby Picanso ’11 is one of the first people to see a script. It’s his job to find and manage the locations that become the foundation of movie magic.

On a warm June day in 1953, just hours after she graduated from Colby Junior College, Gretchen Hoch watched her family’s car drive off as she stood in the college parking lot. Gretchen was engaged to a man whom her father did not approve of because of religious differences, and given an ultimatum, she’d chosen her fiancé over her father. It’s not a unique story, but what happened next is: Gretchen’s professors took her in, helped plan her wedding and on-campus reception, and Gretchen and her husband made New London their home.

Good writers know that compelling characters are often contradictory. Take Marvel superhero Matt Murdock — blind lawyer by day, vigilante by night — or Jesse Pinkman, the drug dealer with a heart of gold on Breaking Bad. Contradictions make a story more interesting by subverting an audience’s expectations. They also express a seeming paradox of life: People are one thing, but they’re also another.

Symbiosis describes a relationship between two or more organisms that live closely together, often for the benefit of both parties. From the microbes taking up residence in the human gut to the bumblebees that pollinate flowers on their search for nectar, life depends on—and is better—in partnership. The same holds true for research. Learning is most meaningful when applied to real-world scenarios, and the relationship between Colby-Sawyer College and its hometown of New London has allowed envir

This summer, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Harvey Pine shared his expertise in aquaculture with agricultural extension agents in Senegal as part of a volunteer project funded by the United States Agency for International Development. And, as a bonus, he donated a set of Colby-Sawyer soccer uniforms to a local youth group.

Physical therapists are experts in movement — they help patients restore mobility through exercise and similar treatment plans. Exercise science major Colin Turner '19 received hands-on clinical experience while also experiencing a new culture when he spent his summer working alongside physical therapists in Ireland. The exposure to his discipline in an international setting took his learning to an even higher level, and the transferable skills he learned brought him one step closer to his ultimate goal of helping people improve their quality of life.

This summer, Maliha Azizi '17 worked as a private company services tax intern for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the second largest professional services firm in the world. As a multinational network, its 223,000 employees help individuals and companies maximize value by providing assurance, tax and advisory services in more than 157 countries. At their office in McLean, Va., Azizi helped the company achieve its ultimate goal of solving important tax problems for clients in local, national and global markets.