The philosophical neuropsychologist
In 1965, a reporter covering the first commencement of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center asked Daniel N. Robinson ’58, one of its first two degree recipents, what he hoped to achieve. The newly minted neuropsychology PhD indicated that he aspired to the status of a footnote. Robinson has far exceeded his modest aspiration.
    That anecdote and assessment were recounted when CUNY honored Robinson last spring with its President’s Distinguished Alumni Medal. A distinguished professor emeritus of philosophy at Georgetown, Robinson is a faculty fellow at Oxford University and a Board of Scholars member at Princeton’s James Madison Program. His extensive teaching and writing span the realms of moral philosophy, legal history, philosophy of mind, intellectual history, and the history of philosophy and psychology. His book An Intellectual History of Psychology is a classic in the field, and his Wild Beasts and Idle Humors is considered a definitive history of the legal conception of mental competence. He has served as president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association, and consultant to the NSF, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the award-winning PBS programs, The Brain and The Mind. Shortly before returning in January for his 20th year at Oxford, where he gives the core lectures on Kant, Robinson chatted with the Scene.

Describe your fascination with the philosophy of mind. As a neuropsychologist, most of my early publications were on human brain function, with particular attention to the visual system. Consulting to neurosurgery and neurology services in New York, I got broad experience with persons with brain damage and resulting changes in their cognitive, motor, and sensory abilities. I got interested in problems like the extent to which brain mechanisms determine action. These things raised in my mind problems of a philosophical nature, such as to what extent the actor is morally responsible for what he does. So my publications moved in the direction of how best to understand that very complex phenomenon called human nature.

Why do you teach? I just wrote a chapter for a volume devoted to the case of Terry Schiavo. Look at the range of things that figure in a case like that, from functional MRIs and brain scans to arguments for and against euthanasia, from parental versus spousal rights to the role of the government when it declares it has a compelling interest in life. As science progresses, these issues are going to become ever-more difficult. How are we preparing young men and women to deal with these things in ways that are better than the ways we dealt with them? When you think of it, teaching is a civic office. Somebody’s got to take responsibility for everything society has to deal with.

What are some fond Colgate memories? I can remember, quite vividly, some of my professors lecturing. Alfred Seely Brown in chemistry had a kind of Everett Dirksen diction about him. I remember the day Ralph Antone and I locked Huntington Terrell [philosophy] out of the classroom. He was coming up the walk very cheerfully, to give us a lecture on Plato. Ralph and I wondered how philosophically calm and neutral he would remain if we stopped him from coming in. He made some vague threats about what he would do if we didn’t let him in and we chuckled, but then we relented and let him in. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and knew we were just kidding around.

When you’re not at Oxford, how do you spend your time? During the fall term, I give 10 lectures at nearby Hood College (we live in Middletown, Md.), and I lecture all over the country. The rest of the time is devoted to reading, writing, and gardening. My bride of 43 years, Francine, and I have wonderful overlapping interests, from old movies and potato chips to rather serious scholarly things.

If you could have dinner with any three people living or dead, who would they be? I would love to hear Kant and David Hume go at it over a nice long supper, and at the end of the day see if they have resolved whether the moral dimension of life reaches an objective fact of the world, or whether it’s, finally, a species of feeling. And, of course, then I’d turn to Aristotle to find out which of them was right.

— Rebecca Costello


Catching up with a curmudgeon
A Q&A with Jay Darrin ’69, owner of the travel business Curmudgeon and Friends in Nashua, N.H.



Where are you now?
The Animal Kingdom at Disney, sitting by a waterfall. This is just a fun tour with some friends. That’s the beauty of this job — I get to do a lot of my own travels, too.

How did you become a travel guide?
I was a teacher for 35 years, and during that time I led a lot of National Park camping trips with students. When I got into my 50s, I got too old to drive a school bus and sleep on the ground, so one of my friends suggested I start leading trips with adults.

Why did you decide to name your business Curmudgeon and Friends?
When you get in a vehicle with students, they hop on and they’re fine with wherever you go. When you travel with adults, you drive about a quarter of a mile and they say, “Why are you taking this route? Have you ever thought about going here?” So, I incorporated a philosophy statement that explains that they’re traveling with a curmudgeon and they might have lots of good ideas but I wasn’t interested in them. I told them that while Burger King was “Have it your way,” I’m the anti–Burger King: Have it my way.

What are the similarities between being a teacher and a tour guide?
[At Colgate] I had Doc Reading, who was a great raconteur, and I also had Russell Speirs, so I realized that bringing a little drama into the classroom, even in math, can dress it up. And I found that that works well on trips. If you can bring a story and humor into it, it seems to resonate with people.

How many trips do you lead?
I travel about 160 days of the year. This year, I’ll be doing about 10 overnight trips and 120 day trips. Some of them are just one night, like to Tanglewood [Music Center]. We do some trips that last almost two weeks. This year, we’re going out to the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin.

Describe your clientele.
It’s mixed, but mainly retirees, especially for the day trips. I’ve had a woman who I think was 102 who’s gone on some of the trips.

What’s the most interesting part of the business for you?
I keep going to new destinations. Sometimes people make suggestions about things I had no idea about. In one instance, we have a woman who is blind who travels with us and I was trying to think of things she would enjoy, so I learned about the Porter Music Box Company [in Vermont]. I thought it was going to be boring, but it turns out, this guy isn’t making tiny music boxes, but big pieces of furniture. He also had an antique collection that he played.

How do you become knowledgeable about the places you’re going?
Part of the motivation for me doing this with students was that I had something to look forward to and I would do a lot of planning during the winter, so I’ve continued that. I really enjoy doing the research, and I ask a lot of questions along the way.

Where are your favorite places to travel?
My two favorite national parks are the Grand Tetons and Bryce Canyon. For day trips, I love going to Cape Ann [Mass.]. Newport, Rhode Island, is another good destination: you can do a tour of the mansions, theater, and the cliff walks.

– Aleta Mayne


A super show
For the past 10 years, scores of young performers have been given the chance for their stars to shine, singing, dancing, and acting before a packed house, thanks to the creative energy of Anne Eddy Beaty ’76.


(Photo courtesy of Tom McGarrity)

    Beaty volunteers her time to create and direct the hugely popular annual SuperShow at Central Middle School (CMS) in Greenwich, Conn., which has become a true community-building event. Far from a conventional school play, the SuperShow features skits based on the best of Hollywood, Broadway, television, and the Internet, performed by students from CMS and its feeder schools. Alumni of the program often return to serve as guest actors, dancers, instructors, stagehands, ushers, and backstage assistants. Beaty takes a truly inclusive approach to theater: she does not hold auditions, there are no lead roles, and everyone gets a turn — even the audience.
    Lifelong Greenwich resident Tom McGarrity ’79 (whose own son Tucker has performed in the SuperShow and whose wife, Debbie, coordinates the volunteers) wrote in a letter to the local paper, “While there are scores of volunteers who are critical to the success of the show, it is Anne’s blood, sweat, and, yes, tears that inspire our children to have a memory of a lifetime — to be a star!”
    This year, Beaty got a bit of the star treatment herself when the Colgate Thirteen — two of whom are SuperShow alumni — made a special appearance and serenaded her as their finale.
    Beaty’s theater background includes teaching and directing in New York City. She also directed a series of performances by New York City Fame dancers and inner-city teenage actors in a national tour aimed at raising awareness and funds for women in crisis and providing a productive outlet for youths, breakdancers, hip-hop artists, and rappers.

– Rebecca Costello


Bridging mind and spirit
As an ordained minister and assistant professor of psychiatry, Kelley Raab Mayo ’81 is one of the few taking a unique approach to mental health by bridging the gap between mind and spirit. She hopes that her new book, Creativity, Spirituality, and Mental Health, will be used to better integrate spirituality and spiritual resources into the mental health treatment model. The group of scholars in this niche is so small that in 2007, Raab Mayo co-founded the International Association for Spirituality and Mental Health so that the members could meet every few months to network and collaborate.


Kelley Raab Mayo ’81 and her husband, Yvon (photo by George Popadynec)

    “It’s coming, but it’s slow,” Raab Mayo said. “Not too many psychologists or psychiatrists have been trained in or are interested in spirituality, so they don’t often recognize that it can be important to clients.” She added, “I wrote the book so it would be recognized that this can be very important in healing and recovery from mental health issues.”
    Raab Mayo said she has pondered the concepts of God and spirituality since childhood. At Colgate, she became involved in University Church, Intervarsity, and a group that explored religious questions called Skeptics and Others Seeking. Through her participation in these groups, the university chaplain at the time, Rev. Coleman Brown, became a mentor to her. Although she had entered Colgate intending to become a doctor like her father, Brown’s influence swayed her decision to go into the seminary after graduation. “He put the idea in my mind of doing pastoral counseling or some sort of chaplaincy work,” she said.
    Today, as chaplain at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre in Canada, Raab Mayo counsels people on an individual and group basis, provides spiritual care to clients and staff, and conducts religious services. Part of the healing process, she believes, involves coaxing out people’s creative and spiritual sides. “[It’s] helping people look at what their deepest values are and their sources of meaning and purpose,” she said.
    In a research study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Raab Mayo collaborated with a psychologist and a psychiatrist on a spiritually oriented approach to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. “I used exercises to help people discover what their values were and have more coherence with their meditation and mindfulness practices to calm anxiety,” she explained.
    Some tools that she believes can help people understand who they are include reflective activities such as walking in the woods, journaling, reading spiritual texts, and music.
    The chaplain practices what she preaches. Music is one of her personal creative outlets and was another seed that was nurtured at Colgate. Raab Mayo played violin in the University Orchestra, took her freshman seminar on Bach with Marietta Cheng, and spent two Jan Plans focused on music — one with a retired professional violinist and the other with the university organist at the time. Tendonitis forced her to put the violin down, so for the past year, she’s been learning the trumpet and playing in a beginner band.
    Her book allowed her to try her skills at fiction writing, a creative outlet that she hopes to delve into more. The last chapter of the book is a fictional account that serves as an example of how creative expression can play a healing role. Raab Mayo does not negate the need for pharmacological treatment, yet she believes that medication is not the whole answer. In “A Story of Salome,” the main character, Jesus’s sister, learns to stabilize her mental health issues by playing an instrument, painting, and dancing.
    “I’d like to get more into creative writing, but it’s a future enterprise,” Raab Mayo said. In the meantime, the chaplain/professor has plenty to keep her busy.

— Aleta Mayne


Giving good days to children who need them
“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” That’s the simple yet profound lesson that Wendy Bleier-Mervis ’88 has taken away from working with children who have cancer. “When you’re with these kids, your problems seem very small compared to what they have to deal with on a daily basis, and the unknown of what’s going to happen in their lives,” said Bleier-Mervis, the executive director of Camp Good Days.
    Her husband, Gary Mervis, founded the camp in 1979 for his daughter, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at age 9. Because Teddi was the only child in her school with cancer, he built Camp Good Days on New York State’s Keuka Lake so that she could spend time with kids who were having similar experiences.
    “Especially with childhood cancer, it’s often a rare disease, so they could be the only one in their school who is battling cancer, and they probably feel alone,” Bleier-Mervis explained. “We give them the opportunity to be with others who understand what they’re going through.” She added that the children get to be themselves for a week: “They don’t have to wear their wigs, they can have dessert instead of their dinners, they run around — we let them be kids.”
    The Colgate connections to the camp have been there since the beginning. “Doc” (Merrill) Miller, Student Health Services director, was one of the first doctors to volunteer at Camp Good Days in 1980. Various student groups have supported the camp through fundraising initiatives, as have alumni.
    The camp has expanded to include programs for children with HIV/AIDS, in the foster care system, and those affected by domestic violence, as well as international children with cancer. It also offers adult weekends for women with cancer as well as for parents and partners of those with the disease. “For the adults, it’s a network and a friendship: they can share what’s going on and questions they have,” Bleier-Mervis said.
     Coming to the camp after working as a physical education teacher and coach, Bleier-Mervis had started there as a lifeguard on her summers off. While at Colgate, Bleier-Mervis was a four-year starter on the women’s basketball team. Later, at the camp, her athletic talents made her a natural activities coordinator. “These kids do things that they’re not going to be able to do back home, like go in a hot air balloon, ride in a seaplane, fish all day.” Eventually, she became program director and then camp director.
    About three years ago, Bleier-Mervis took a leave of absence from teaching and coaching to play a larger role at the camp. In the off season, she spreads the word about Camp Good Days and fundraises for the camp’s programs, which are offered free of charge to attendees.
    Although she doesn’t play the sport as much as she used to, Bleier-Mervis stayed involved with basketball as a coach and was recently inducted into the Section V Basketball Hall of Fame for her role on the varsity team at West Irondequoit (N.Y.) High School.
    It was this continued involvement with sports that brought her and her husband together. The couple met at a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, where they discovered that they had shared interests. He had spent most of his career in politics working for the state legislature; she majored in political science at Colgate. He received his bachelor’s degree in physical education and has coached football for many years at different levels; she spent most of her career as a physical education teacher and coach.
    Now, their common goal is to give those in need a memorable experience. “At camp, everything else in your life seems so unimportant compared to making sure these kids have a great time,” Bleier-Mervis said. “We tell our counselors that if the kids are pushing you over to get on the bus, then you should find something else to do, but if they’re crying and clinging to you because they don’t want to leave, we’ve made an impact. And ninety percent don’t want to leave because they feel that’s where they belong — no one is judging them, and everybody understands them. They know when they leave camp that they have a new family and that there are other kids just like them, so they’re not alone in the world.”

— Aleta Mayne


In the know: choosing children’s literature
Diane Bailey Foote ’89, a professional reviewer of children’s and parenting books, is a member of the 2010 Newbery Award Committee and 2011 Coretta Scott King Book Award Jury, both American Library Association (ALA) youth media awards. She holds an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois and is a past executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children. Here, Bailey Foote offers tips for hooking young readers up with great books:



1. Encourage enjoyment. Don’t force kids to read something because it’s “good for them,” unless it’s also something they’ll genuinely enjoy. Real pleasure in books translates into increased time spent reading, which research shows leads naturally to greater reading (and writing) ability and broadens children’s knowledge and awareness.

2. Know your audience. There’s no substitute for familiarity with a child’s individual reading ability and interests. No book, even one with starred reviews and awards, is suitable for every reader. Babies and toddlers need clear, bright illustrations in picture and board books. Children just learning to read need simple vocabulary and a clear layout (humor helps!). Reluctant readers need high-interest topics. If you don’t know a child well, ask someone who knows about that child’s interests. Animals? Space? Art? History? Action? Animals in space?

3. Ask the experts. A bookseller or librarian can offer invaluable advice and suggestions, particularly if you know which books a child has enjoyed previously. There are many lesser-known, well-written elaborate fantasy series that Harry Potter fans may wish to read next, for example. If you remember particular books fondly from your own childhood, an expert can suggest similar contemporary titles. Many states offer child-voted book award programs that feature appealing reading selections; ask at your school or public library.

4. Allow children to read outside of their grade level. Plenty of kids read above or below their grade level. It’s OK if a child reads a book that might be “too easy” once in a while; don’t grown-ups enjoy reading “easy” stuff sometimes? It’s also OK for children to come across unfamiliar words or concepts in a book. That’s how learning happens. Make sure you or another approachable adult is available to answer questions and, perhaps, help guide further exploration of new words and ideas.

5. Consider nontraditional formats. Great reading isn’t found only in novels! Informational books, poetry, graphic novels and comics, audiobooks, and magazines offer a wide range of topics, styles, and genres for all ages. Exposing young readers to a variety of reading material increases the chances they’ll discover something they love, and helps them hone their tastes and critical thinking skills.

Visit http://www.ala.org/yma for more information on the ALA’s wide array of youth media awards, including recommended lists of fiction, nonfiction, young adult books, books for beginning readers, and audiobooks.
    To read more about Bailey Foote’s experience on the Newbery committee, check out an interview with her on http://beyondthemargins.com, a literary-themed blog created by Nichole Bernier ’89.

What do you know? If you’re an expert in an area of your field or avocation and would like
to share your sage advice, e-mail scene@colgate.edu or write to the Colgate Scene,
13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346.


A family production
Television shows are known for the people on screen, but perhaps just as important is what goes on behind the scenes. Nick ’91 and Paul ’94 Verbitsky may in fact be the masterminds behind what you are watching, though you’ll never see their faces.


(photo by John Rottet)

    The brothers are CEO and VP of production, respectively, at Blue Chip Films, a full-service film and television production company they founded in 1998. Their work includes everything from the production of three separate documentaries about the lives of polygamists, to a new television series called Intersections for Speed Channel.
    “Each episode of Intersections compares two machines that are seemingly different,” explained Paul. “Basically, the idea is to uncover the hidden things that link them.” The brothers have been working on 13 episodes for the show’s first season, with hopes for more to come.
    Nick and Paul take great pride in the series, which is the product of a collaboration with the television sales agency CableReady. “We like to tell stories and be creative,” explained Nick, “and Intersections is something that we have been working on from the ground up.”
    Although the brothers are passionate about the series, it is hardly the only project on their plate. “With television and movies,” said Paul, “when a job gets greenlit, it can get killed just as quickly. You always want to keep juggling multiple things.” That is why the brothers also work on smaller commercial and internal projects for a diverse group of corporate partners such as Pepsico and the NFL.
    The latter is an appropriate client for the Verbitskys’ company, which traces some of its roots to Colgate’s football team. After graduation, Nick began working in the radio business, while Paul found a position in television with Comedy Central. Despite working in different industries, the brothers collaborated annually to produce highlight films for the team, of which they are both alumni.
    The experience helped inspire the brothers to forge their own path in television production, and introduced them to John Dabrowski ’99, who is today a producer with Blue Chip Films and one of their closest friends and collaborators. “When we were doing highlight films for the football team,” explained Paul, “I realized I had forgotten a bunch of things that I needed. I dialed CUTV, and John answered the phone.” Since that chance encounter, Dabrowski has collaborated on nearly 300 projects with Nick and Paul.
    The brothers attribute some of Blue Chip Films’ success to such internal family and friendship bonds, which make the company more approachable than larger firms, especially when filming documentaries. “In our business,” explained Nick, “a lot of [filmmakers] will say the story is going to be one thing, and then bring it to the edit room and cut it together to make something completely different. We don’t do that to people.”
    As the Verbitskys continue working on projects like Intersections, they look forward to more creative opportunities in the future. “Our goal is to expand and build on the success that we’ve had in the television business,” said Nick, “and to move on from that to a bigger presence in documentary film.”
    Paul is quick to add that no matter how much success he and his brother find, don’t expect to find them wearing leather pants, or their sunglasses at night. “Nick and I? We’re just two DU guys.”

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10


Leading green efforts at a major NYC hospital
Jessica Prata ’01 is working on the forefront of the sustainability effort as it relates to health care, and she is doing it on a big stage. The alumna is the sustainability officer at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), which has more than one million inpatient and outpatient visits in a year and employs 18,000 people in New York City.


(photo by Amelia Panico)

    “Hospitals have a responsibility to serve the community, and sustainability plays a big part in that because it helps provide a safer and healthier healing environment for patients,” she said. “It’s incredibly gratifying that my work allows me to contribute toward such an important mission.”
    She works with teams from throughout NYP on initiatives such as a mixed recycling program that is now saving the hospital $30,000 a month.
    Building a management framework to monitor such programs is critical to creating a coordinated sustainability effort, and Prata helped establish an infrastructure that allows for communication about sustainability across all disciplines, and at every level of the organization. She also helped create and launch the NYP Green Champion program, a staff engagement model that taps into employees’ grassroots efforts.
    Prata was named the hospital’s first sustainability officer in January 2009, a position that reflected a new need at the hospital and in health care in general.
    “Hospitals and organizations need a point person to push forward what ‘greening’ is
going to look like at that specific organization,” she said.
    An alumnus helped Prata land her first job at NYP, a story shared by many Colgate
graduates. And like many alumni, she is eager to give back and help current students through events such as the Real World career conference, where she spoke to seniors earlier this year.
    “It’s about taking advantage of the opportunity that Colgate consistently puts forward to students and alumni to get together, to mingle, to connect,” she said, adding that she is an active member of the New York City alumni and Women at Colgate groups.
    There are no predefined paths for securing jobs related to sustainability, she said. In her position, it is her ability to build relationships, effectively and passionately communicate a vision, and coordinate a multitude of details that helps her be successful.
    A history major while at Colgate, Prata said that after graduation it was all about “accessing her passion” and discovering what kind of work environment best suits her. She found that environment at NYP.
    Prata talks about sustainability and the varied career opportunities it presents in Colgate Conversations, the podcast series that highlights members of the campus community. To listen, visit www.colgate.edu/podcasts.

— Tim O’Keeffe


Portrait of a young curator

(photo by Graham Newhall)
From the Challenge of Modernity to the challenge of co-curating the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Gary Carrion-Murayari ’02 has triumphed artfully.
    His first big break into New York’s art scene was landing a post-graduation internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art under film and video curator Chrissie Iles. “She took her mentor role seriously,” he said. “She brought me with her everywhere: to galleries and artists’ studios. We literally went to every show at every museum in the city.”
    A mere seven years later, after being named co-curator of the Whitney’s 2010 Biennial, he landed a spot on the New York Times style magazine’s list of Nifty 50: America’s up-and-coming talent. Since then, New York magazine, the New York Observer, Art Pulse, and Art in America have noted his meteoric rise.
    In the modern art world, Carrion-Murayari’s relative youth serves his purpose.
    “My background and prejudices were formed at a particular historical moment,” said Carrion-Murayari, who was born in 1980 and began visiting New York City museums when he was a high school student in Carmel, N.Y. Today, he is most drawn to post-1960s art, especially video works from the 1970s and beyond. At the Whitney in 2007, he curated Television Delivers People, which examined the relationship between television and the viewer.
    At Colgate, Carrion-Murayari studied film history and theory with Professor John Knecht, and took courses in studio art and video. “I never thought I’d be an artist, but those classes made me realize that what artists do is very exciting,” he said.
    While concentrating in art and art history, he also worked as a docent and intern at the Picker Art Gallery. “It was an incredible experience,” he said. “By being able to handle art and look at art up close, I learned respect for the art object. I also learned to talk about art in public.”
    Over time, Carrion-Murayari has come to trust his curatorial voice. For the biennial, he traversed the country in search of “intelligent work and the artists who are making it passionately.”
    The 55 artists he helped choose included, for the first time, more women than men. There also were fewer mid-career artists or senior figures, because, he said, “that’s not where contemporary art is happening in its most vibrant form.”
    Putting together a high-profile biennial is an art as well as a science. And it’s nearly impossible to satisfy critics, artists, and the viewing public.
     “The people who chose us to curate the show have respect for what we value in contemporary art,” he said. “So we put together a picture of what that looks like.”

 — Barbara Brooks


Interrupted plans present new opportunities
When Chris Reid ’03 began working as an attorney at the nonprofit Legal Aid Society of New York last year, it was an unexpected — although, he believes, ultimately fruitful — hiccup in his career path.



    Reid was on track to join the ranks of the big city law firm Ropes & Gray after graduating from Fordham Law School. He had worked with the firm as a summer associate, and, while still in school, accepted an employment offer from them. But when the global recession struck during Reid’s final year at Fordham, “A lot of firms started saying, ‘We promised all these jobs, but we don’t have enough work for incoming associates,’” he explained.
    Ropes & Gray responded with a compromise: incoming associates could either defer their start date for several months, or the firm would pay them a reduced salary to pursue a one-year public interest “externship.” After the externship, they would be guaranteed positions at Ropes & Gray as second-year associates.
    The sudden change in plans was understandably startling for Reid, who had hoped to practice intellectual property litigation (patent law). “I took a few weeks to panic like everyone else did, and then to think about it,” said Reid. “What I realized was that this was an excellent opportunity. Twenty-five years from now, am I going to say: ‘Hey, when I got out of law school the economy was bad and I’m really glad that I just waited three months and took my normal job to make a little more money’? Or am I more likely to say: ‘I’m really glad I chose to have an experience that changed my outlook and my career’?”
    Reid, therefore, jumped wholeheartedly into public interest law, searching for a challenge and finding it with the housing arm of the nonprofit Legal Aid Society in New York. “I wanted to do something entirely different and that deliberately put me outside my comfort zone. I figured it was a great way for me to grow and get confidence.” Reid knew that practicing housing law to benefit indigent people of the city would expose him to extensive contact with clients, and significant time in court — incredible opportunities for a first-year lawyer — and he seized the opportunity.
    His enthusiasm for the experience caught the attention of a New York Times reporter who was investigating the new externship programs of big law firms and filming a video for the newspaper’s “City Room” blog. The reporter met with Reid on several occasions, and even filmed Reid’s first day in court.
    In his first few weeks on the job, even with the added pressure of a news crew checking in on him, Reid began finding success. One client, whose case Reid helped to settle, expresses gratitude for Reid’s service in the New York Times video: “Chris [was] checking on me. Is everything okay? Can we look at your case? Is this going right? … And that showed me that somebody does care.”
    As expected, the work has been challenging, and, at times, emotionally taxing. “You can’t come in and just see it like an office job,” said Reid, “because it really does matter. Results impact an actual person.”
    Reid plans on returning to Ropes & Gray after the externship, but knows he has grown immensely from the experience. He also now has an idea of how he would like to direct future pro bono work. “I made a lot of good friends at Legal Aid. Those are connections that will stay with me. I will always feel closer to issues of housing and poverty. I don’t regret my decision at all.”

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10

Colgate seen

The spirit of alumni sporting their Colgate gear is seen here, there, and everywhere around the globe. Where was your latest spotting? On a Machu Picchu trek? At a mini-reunion in Pocatello? An election polling site in Houston? We’re collecting photos of Colgate sightings around the world. Send them to scene@colgate.edu.



Elizabeth Wolyniak DiCesare ’05 collected biofilm samples from Pocono Creek in Tannersville, Pa., to use in her PhD research at Lehigh University — in the right sweatshirt! Her field assistant and husband, Dan DiCesare ’05, took the photo. Read more about Elizabeth’s groundbreaking research on drinking-water quality at http://www.lehigh-research.org/page/2.



Bob O’Shea ’73 recently visited his daughter Grace ’11 in Barcelona, Spain, where she was studying abroad.


Maroon’d...
in New Orleans, La.



Ryan Meyers ’10 recently launched a new venture with his mother and aunt called Cook New Orleans, which offers five-day culinary excursions in The Big Easy. Through the company’s evolution, Meyers, a native New Orleanian, has immersed himself in the culture and cuisine of the city.

Don’t miss the… hands-on cooking classes at New Orleans School of Cooking. Roll up your sleeves and cook alongside New Orleans chefs using recipes, ingredients, and techniques passed down through generations.

Best tour for your taste buds… Take a culinary history tour and go into the kitchen of the city’s oldest restaurant, Antoines, down Pirates Alley, and through the French Quarter, all while sampling the classics of New Orleans cuisine, from gumbo and muffuletta to pralines, red beans, and more.

Antiques and boutiques… There is nothing better than “Rue Royal” (Royal Street) for shop after shop of antiques and fine locally made wares. And there is always a street performer to entertain you while you shop!

Coolest nighttime adventure… walking cocktail tour. The cocktail was invented in the French Quarter, and this tour not only gives you the history of each drink, but you also get to taste them all. From the popular Hurricane to the Sazerac, you will have the chance to imbibe these specialties in the place where it all began.

Stay… in the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) in the Bourbon Orleans or a Creole townhouse with a beautiful courtyard and antique stained glass windows, where you can see and hear the jazz come alive right outside your window.

Have tips for people who might be maroon’d in your town? Write to us at scene@colgate.edu and put Maroon’d in the subject line.