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The latest edition of Aristeia showcases the achievements and reflections of outstanding current and recent Lafayette students who represent the growing number of students at the College pursuing both academic excellence and engagement with civic life and social justice.
A publication of the Office of the Dean of Studies, it is available now for downloading in PDF format from the dean of studies page on the Lafayette website or in hard copy by calling (610) 330-5080.
Featuring more than two dozen essays by current students, graduates, and faculty, Aristeia “celebrates students who have pushed out boundaries and created their unique identity for intellectual life, scholarship, and social engagement,” write Gladstone (Fluney) Hutchinson, dean of studies, and Julia A. Goldberg, assistant dean of studies. “Lafayette is rich for having such outstanding and varied student experiences, and we wanted to share as full a representation as possible. These stories quilt an academic and intellectual environment that is inclusive and embracing of students’ aggressive search for their philosophical and social identities.” Goldberg is chief administrator of advising programs for graduate and professional schools and prestigious national and international fellowships.
Aristeia is a Greek word meaning excellence or prowess. Chosen as the publication’s title to emphasize the scholarly achievements of students inspired by their scholar-teachers, it originally meant an act of martial bravery, as in the verb aristeuein, used by the hero Glaucus in Homer’s Iliad, quoting his father, who enjoined him “always to be the best . . . the bravest, and hold your head up high above the others” (translation by Robert Fagles).
The publication spotlights some of Lafayette’s recent recipients of national and international undergraduate and post-graduate fellowships and scholarships, including Hart Feuer ’05 (Udall Scholarship, Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship, and Freeman-Asia Scholarship), Amanda Roth ’04 (Jacob K. Javits Fellowship), Jessica Coakley ’03, Shara Gregory ’04 and Michael Lestingi ’04 (Fulbright grants), William Simmons ’04 (Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Fellowship), and Elizabeth Ponder ’04 and Meghan Ramsey ’04 (Goldwater Scholarship).
It also features essays by recent graduates now pursuing advanced study in a wide range of fields at top graduate and professional schools, leaders in student organizations, and other students and faculty members, along with photographs of Student Orientation 2003 by Ajay Hirani ’04.
“Lafayette’s more focussed fellowships, scholarships and post-graduate studies program has given Julia Goldberg and me privileged access into the outstanding intellect and far-reaching ambitions of many of our high-performing students,” Hutchinson says.
“These students, aside from their personal academic pursuits, are often the providers of the intellectual capital that fuel our cutting-edge student organizations that preoccupy themselves with re-thinking civic life and civil society. Their aim is to improve society’s understanding about how life can be made more fair, just, and humane. Their efforts reflect deep faith in the transformative powers of intellectualism and dialogue, and in the virtue of pursuing excellence. Each one of these students and organizations offers us a rich and unique roadmap and promise. Together they strengthen Lafayette’s character as a place of serious intellectual and civic purpose.”