Jack Schuler supports his own alma maters, but when it comes to getting the most bang for his educational buck, he says Carleton stands above many of the country’s best-known schools. Schuler and his wife, Renate, have issued a $2 million matching gift challenge to parents of current and past students.

Richard Kracum ’76 And Laurie Weiss Kracum ’76 have pledged $3 million to the Breaking Barriers, Creating Connections campaign. “To have a high-quality school like Carleton, the capital has to come from those of us who received an excellent education there,” Laurie says. “With our gift, we want to encourage other young people to do the same.”

Beth Bennett ’07 (Fair Oaks, California) is co-president of the Student Organization for the Protection of the Environment, a group determined to bringing waste composting to the Carleton dining halls. "College is one of the times when we have the ability to change our surroundings," Bennet says. "Why wouldn’t students take advantage of that?"

Vivyan Tran ’10, Julia Bradley ’10, and Amanda Hund ’10 live in Burton 131, prime real estate just inside the door linking the residence hall to Sayles-Hill Campus Center. Recently they spent some time dreaming about the perfect student residence, or what they call “the Harry Potter way of living.” For them, it’s all about the shared community spaces, with some amenities thrown in for fun.

Cinema and media studies professor John Schott believes that today’s digital culture is changing how we communicate: Images, audio, and video now have as much power as written narrative. At the same time, powerful new tools and emerging technology are changing the role of the teacher.

“Traditionally, we’ve asked, ‘How does an education in science or social science make you a better artist?’" says Scott Bierman, dean of the College and professor of economics. "Now the question is being turned around to, ‘How does some facility in the arts make you a better scientist?’ Creativity is all about identifying a problem, seeing it in a different light, and putting it back together again in a way that generates important new thinking.”

Sanjiv Shrestha ’05 grew up in a rural Nepali town that lacked running water, electricity, proper health care, and telecommunication. He received a Starr Scholarship to come to Carleton and graduated summa cum laude in economics.

"Whether I return to Asia or stay in the United States, I will try, in my own small way, to live up to what people have invested in me."

Enriching Carleton through socioeconomic diversity is important, says Lacey Dorman ’09. “Students from economically depressed backgrounds are capable of achieving a high level of academic performance. We just haven’t had the opportunities.”

Jack Lindberg ’08 is helping a group of local eighth graders research, write, and edit a book about the James-Younger Gang’s 1876 escape route from Northfield. "The point is to teach them to do it on their own. I’m there to assist and guide them."

Stacy Beckwith teaches Hebrew language and literature courses and has played an integral role in bringing the teaching of Arabic to Carleton. “You can’t contemplate anything to do with the Middle East without it. Arabic language training will help our students move into careers in international relations and diplomacy. There are obvious connections to business, trade, development, health, computer science, and engineering, to say nothing of scholarship in Islamic studies, literature, and cultural studies.”

Ali Khaki ’07 got an unexpected insight into his career path two years ago when he became a research assistant in Joe Chihade’s biochemistry lab. The experience turned Khaki’s love of science into an appreciation of scientific discovery.

“The science done in the laboratory is very different from the science done in the classroom,” says Khaki. “I’m not just doing experiments he tells me to do. It’s more of a give and take between two scientists.”

Over the course of his career, history professor Harry Williams has traveled the world to learn about black people’s lives in a particular community. He uses those experiences to illuminate history for his students.

“Many of my students are surprised to learn that there are black communities outside Africa and the United States," says Williams, the David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History and the Humanities. "I want my teaching to give my students a deeper and more nuanced understanding of black internationalism.”