Androscoggin Scholarships strengthen Bates' roots in the community
 Historian David Garcelon and Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen stand with two of the four 2007-08 Androscoggin Scholars: William Locke, left, and Hannah Giasson, far right. |
Bates College awarded Androscoggin Scholarships for the 2007-08 academic year to four local students, including a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bates established the Androscoggin Scholarship in 2004 to increase financial support for its students from Lewiston, Auburn and surrounding Androscoggin County communities.
The 2007-08 recipients are first-year student Jared Golden of Leeds; sophomore Peter MacArthur of Lewiston: and junior Hannah Giasson and senior William Locke, both of Auburn.
The awards were announced at Bates during the March 27 breakfast meeting of the Alonzo Garcelon Society, a community organization that raises support for the Androscoggin Scholarship Endowment at Bates. Also during the meeting, David Garcelon, great-great-grandson of one of the college’s early benefactors, announced his donation to Bates of hundreds of historic family manuscripts, photographs and other documents dating back to the 18th century.
Golden is a 25-year-old veteran of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will major in history at Bates and hopes to teach college-level history or social studies at the secondary level. Last fall he completed a teaching internship in an advanced-placement U.S. politics class at Lewiston High School.
“I chose Bates because, after my experiences in the military, I felt ready to commit myself to excellence in my education,” Golden says. “I wanted to challenge myself by succeeding at a great college.”
A history and French double major, MacArthur plans to study in Paris during the 2008-09 academic year. “Being from Lewiston, I was a little wary of going to school down the street from my house,” he says. “But things have turned out better than I could have expected. The classes and friends at Bates are the best that anyone could ask for.”
Giasson is a psychology major. During summer 2007, she combined field research and community service in her role as manager of the Lewiston Farmers’ Market. In addition to her diverse responsibilities as market manager, she worked with Somali immigrant farmers at the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project farm in Lisbon.
Through observation and information gathered through questionnaires, Giasson researched the impact of the farmers’ market on food-assistance clients. Her work was supported by a Community-Based Research Fellowship, administered by Bates’ Harward Center for Community Partnerships and funded through the National Community-Based Research Network.
“This opportunity to take learning into my own hands and discover a new dimension of my community amplified my overall appreciation for what Bates has to offer,” Giasson says. “The more I experience through Bates, the more I learn that life is about experiencing, life is about learning.”
Locke, a biology major, is focusing his senior thesis on the effects of bloodworm digging on the growth and survival of softshell clams in Maine. His adviser is biology professor Will Ambrose, an expert on Maine’s bloodworm industry.
“I’ve made great personal and academic gains at Bates,” says Locke. “The opportunity for research with helpful guidance from an understanding adviser has allowed me to gain experience and skills that can’t always be taught through normal course work alone.”
The Garcelon Society breakfast included a talk by David Garcelon, donor of his family’s historic papers to the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at Bates. A surveyor and historian from Concord, Mass., Garcelon described his family’s progress from 17th-century France to Lewiston, where James Garcelon was an early settler, and recounted episodes from the life of Garcelon Society namesake Alonzo Garcelon.
A Lewiston native, Alonzo was a surgeon who served in both houses of the Maine Legislature and as Maine governor. Also prominent in Lewiston business affairs, Garcelon co-founded the Lewiston Journal newspaper and played a key role in the choice of Lewiston as the home of Bates College.
Garcelon taught at Bates and served as a college trustee. The college’s football field, on Central Avenue next to the new dining Commons, is named after him.
