Students at COA receive diplomas Texas dean speaks on human ecology

BAR HARBOR – To the strains of the Anah Highlanders bagpipe band, 63 College of the Atlantic students, arrayed in party dresses, T-shirts, suits and one purple mortarboard, marched down the aisle at the college’s 32nd graduation.

About 1,000 people listened to Dr. Frederick Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, speak on the value of human ecology to future planning. He received an honorary degree.

The crowd gave a standing ovation to student Jamie Frank’s spirited and poetically philosophical graduation address, and gave two standing ovations to philanthropists Shelby and Gale Davis, who also received honorary degrees.

The Davises give scholarships to 50 international students each year at five colleges, including College of the Atlantic. In thanking COA for his degree, Shelby Davis repeated his mother’s admonition: “Don’t try to be funny and don’t try to be smart, just be yourself.”

To open the ceremonies, COA President Steven Katona underscored the value of community and social involvement. Commencement ended with the announcement that every member of the ’04 class had participated in raising nearly $2,000 for the college to be matched by COA trustee and ’84 alum Jay McNally. The graduates included three students receiving a master’s of philosophy in human ecology.

COA graduates will be taking off in many directions. Among them, Hua Wang, who received the Center for Applied Human Ecology Award, will be studying planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yaniv Brandvain, recipient of the William H. Drury Jr. Prize in Zoology is heading to the Ph.D. program in ecology and evolutionary biology at Indiana University. Nat Keller, who introduced the speaker and received the Daniel H. Kane Jr. Award, will be traveling to Europe and South America on a Watson Fellowship.