Andover student celebrates graduation by waterskiing on Lake Andrews

Stuart Abelson, a graduating senior from Andover, Mass., left Bates with a splash, when he waterskied across Lake Andrews on May 23, wearing a Bobcat mascot suit. Abelson was towed by a car driving alongside the two acre-size body of water that the students affectionately call “the puddle.” Abelson’s single pass on Lake Andrews lasted about 15 seconds.

Abelson, who founded the Bates waterskiing club, has been waterskiing for more than 16 years and was the National Collegiate All-Star Trick Water Ski Champion in 1995. He also was named an All-American on the National Collegiate All-Star Water Ski Team that year.

On May 26, Abelson graduated magna cum laude with an interdisciplinary major in neuroscience. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, a North American honor society that recognizes excellence in scientific research. Abelson has worked as a volunteer in the emergency room at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Located midway between the coast and the mountains in south-central Maine, Bates is a 142-year-old undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences and is rated among the top 25 national liberal-arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report. Bates offers majors in 23 academic departments and seven interdisciplinary programs, and encourages independent study, research with faculty members and participation in off-campus programs. Bates does not require standardized-test results for admission.