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Max Vaickus ’12 had been coming to Hamilton long before his first year as a student on the Hill. For years, he would accompany his family each winter and summer to visit his brother Louis Vaickus ’05. The Hill’s stately buildings made an impression early on: “that’s what I thought a college was supposed to look like,” Vaickus remembers. When it was time to choose his own college, he too picked Hamilton. Now, he will soon begin a career as a medical assistant with the Boston Sports and Shoulder Center.

After Kristin Stenerson walked across the stage as a member of Hamilton’s Bicentennial class, she walked into her new position as a strategy and operations consultant for Deloitte, one of the world’s largest professional service employers. For Stenerson, a mathematics and economics major, the job at Deloitte is the culmination of years of hard work both inside and outside the classroom.

Jason Mariasis looked at 25 liberal arts schools before he found Hamilton. It was a perfect fit right away—he applied Early Decision. Four years later as a new Hamilton graduate, he has found another perfect fit at Capital One Financial’s Digital Strategies group, where he will be employed beginning this summer.

Julia Litzky ’12 doesn’t sleep much, and that annoys her. “I used to be able to run off three hours a night freshman year,” she said, “but now I have to get  five or six.” In between finalizing her acceptance to Dartmouth’s M.D./Ph.D. program, volunteering at the Writing Center and crafting her own metal jewelry, it’s surprising she had time to sleep at all as her time at Hamilton wound down.

There is perhaps no greater evidence of the transformative power of education than the moment when a recent college graduate moves from the pupil’s desk to the front of the classroom. These newly minted teachers are the front lines in the battle to provide education for every American child, regardless of geographic location or family income.  Foxfire Buck '12 is one such new teacher.

The Emerson Gallery began its final year of programming by opening a recently unearthed time capsule from 1871, so it is perhaps fitting that the last Emerson Gallery event of the year was the official dedication of a new time capsule to be opened on the occasion of Hamilton College’s Tercentennial in 2112

“My name is Helen Sperling. I am a Jew. I am a survivor.” With these simple words, Helen Sperling began to recount her experience of the Holocaust before a crowd of Hamilton students and community members packed into the Chapel. During the course of the two-hour-long lecture, which was sponsored by the Days-Massolo Center and Hillel, Sperling recounted the darkest moments of her life with a vigor and compassion that belied her 92 years. Throughout her time in Polish ghettos and prison camps, Sperling’s indomitable spirit sustained her in the face of incredible hardship and heart-wrenching sorrow.

Nefertiti. Cleopatra. They are striking figures not only for their political accomplishments, but also for their status as powerful women in a male-dominated world. According to award-winning Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, however, women in ancient Egypt “enjoyed levels of freedom totally unknown in the ancient world”- including the freedom to rule as pharaoh. Fletcher and colleague Stephen Buckley, an archaeological chemist, elaborated on the role of women rulers in ancient Egypt in their March 29 Winslow Lecture, “Egypt’s Female Pharaohs.” The lecture was sponsored by the Classics Department.

The year 2012 is certainly one for celebration. It marks not only the 200th anniversary of Hamilton College’s founding, but also the 25th anniversary of an institution that has become virtually synonymous with the College itself: the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center. Its presence on campus today embodies a value that College luminaries like former President Melancthon Woolsey Stryker (who once penned a three-page treatise on the value of concise writing using only one syllable words) held dear—the ability to write well and clearly.

Nothing can stop traffic like a pair of teenage lions. Members of the Hamilton Outdoor Club (HOC) experienced this first-hand during a winter break trip to Kenya. On the first day of their two-week trip, the van that the students were traveling in was held up by a lion-induced traffic jam.