By Caroline Crawford, Editor
Fall came quickly this year. It’s an interesting quirk of college life at Saint Michael’s that the academic year ends in mid-May, just about the time the weather is becoming reliably good. The campus is greening up into its most lush and verdant state just as the residence halls empty out and students head home for summer jobs and classes.
This past summer, there was plenty of activity on campus under the green canopy of leaves (and yes, quite a bit of rain). For one, a new Academic English and College Awareness program brought to campus more than 40 young Burlington and Winooski high school students with limited academic English skills but high potential. The program is taught by the skilled faculty of Saint Michael’s renowned Applied Linguistics Department, formerly the School of International Studies (see the story on page 4). Over in the McCarthy Arts Center, a remarkable group of students were working long days and nights as interns at the Saint Michael’s Playhouse, getting invaluable theater production skills while being mentored by Broadway professionals (see First Stage, page 24). And on campus and then at home, students were exploring a new “hybrid” model of summer coursework (page 12).
And now we’re deep into fall again. Students returned to fill the residence halls under late summer sun and after enjoying a gorgeous cacophony of colorful leaves, we are settling back into gray days.
But something is different this fall. The new Pomerleau Alumni Center has opened, and with it comes a whole new campus perspective. Not only is the view across Route 15 now different, with the new building settling in on the hollow of green between the Observatory and the President’s House, but there’s a new view of campus through the building’s big, bright windows. We hope that all alumni will visit Pomerleau and discover their new home on campus. The building is beautiful, “green” and ready for visitors. We’ll have more about this fall’s building dedication in the next issue of the magazine; for now, see the inside back cover for an artistic view that we hope you will soon see in person.
