On a recent Friday, the Carleton community flocked to the Bald Spot to help stop world hunger by buying soup. The soup was sold in bowls made by Kelly Connole, assistant professor of art, and her ceramics class; the soup was made by the residents of various interest houses on campus. The $3,000 raised by selling the bowls full of soup went to the Northfield Community Action Food Shelf.

For the first time ever, the women on Carleton’s Water Polo Team won their regional tournament and earned a chance to vie for the national championship. This Carleton team is the best since water polo came to Carleton as a club sport in 2000. Although competitive in its division before, the team had never previously won the regional title.

In a conference center in Hartford, Conn., a small circular robot began a two-minute journey through a maze, carrying with it the hopes and expectations of a small but enthusiastic team of students. The robot, hastily constructed by the Carleton robotics team to replace a malfunctioning counterpart, was on its third and final attempt to locate and extinguish a candle placed in one of the maze’s rooms. It hummed along slowly, scanning each room with its ultraviolet sensor before finding its target. With a quick burst from its fan, it snuffed out the flame.

A boy dressed in black armor, bamboo sword in hand, charges, shouting, toward another person while identically dressed pairs around him do the same. A confused spectator might think he’d been transported back to medieval Asia. In reality, this boy and 35 others are gathered at Carleton’s West Gym for the Godo Keiko for the Midwest Kendo Federation.

Professor Elizabeth McKinsey is wearing green and white Mardi Gras beads around her neck as she pulls out three fantastically decorated Mardi Gras masks and hands them to ENTS (Environmental and Technology Studies) professor Tsegaye Nega and Carleton’s Dean of the College, Scott Bierman. As the audience laughs appreciatively, the three faculty members on the stage of Nourse Little Theater enthusiastically don their colorful masks for a few moments before returning to the topic at hand. This afternoon, they are discussing the significance of Hurricane Katrina in the panel “Saving New Orleans: How and Why?”

The Katrina Day plenary session “The Media and Katrina: Voices from the Gulf Coast” provided insights from National Public Radio reporter Martin Kaste ’91, cinema and media studies concentrator Morgan Weiland, ‘06, and sociology and anthropology major Lauren Flexon ’06.

Retirees and longtime employees were honored at Carleton College on March 28 at a lunchtime ceremony and a dinner with President Robert A. Oden Jr.

“Can someone remind me what we’ve talked about, what decisions we’ve been making?” Carleton junior Cailey Gibson of Shrewsbury, Vermont, asks the room full of eager grade-schoolers.

Non-renewable energy, organic versus corporate farms, and healthy snacks, answer the students in Ellen Paulsen’s fourth and fifth grade class at Nerstrand Elementary. Paulsen’s students are having their last Kids for Conservation class and reflecting on what they’ve learned.

Freshman Ken Geiger of Maple Plain, Minnesota, used to have a full head of hair. But since Feb. 10 he can no longer run his fingers through his wavy locks. Geiger participated in Cuts for Cancer, an event sponsored by Carleton’s Acting in the Community Together (ACT) office to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

“I love to eat good food, and a change in the style of food is always nice at the dining hall,” says freshman Tomoka Nakamura of Tokyo, Japan.

Many students share Nakamura’s sentiments, having grown tired of the same old food offered by their campus dining halls. Fortunately, here at Carleton students had a chance to change that recently. During the week of January 23, they were given the chance to spice up the menu with foods that not only satisfied their tastebuds, but also reminded them of home. That week Carleton’s dining halls featured cuisine from recipes provided by students.

Carleton’s librarians were recently named the coolest around by Mpls. St. Paul magazine because of their baseball-style trading cards. But for Carleton the cards are nothing new.

Although most college students don’t put much thought into their cherry tomatoes as they cram food down their throats between classes, manners czar Peggy Hanson and the Carleton College Career Center do, and that’s why nearly 100 well-dressed Carleton students met in Great Hall recently to learn the finer points of etiquette.