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Football Defeats Bowdoin to Secure CBB
This Saturday, the Colby football team capped a successful season with a 16-6 defeat of their rivals, the Bowdoin College Polar Bears, securing the team’s second consecutive CBB championship and a second-place finish in the NESCAC. Their 6-3 final record represents the first winning season that the program has posted in the past twenty years, speaking to the team’s development under Head Coach Jack Cosgrove. The result on Saturday put the Mules back in the all-time rivalry lead, having now won 49 matchups to the Polar Bears’ 48.
The team was led by a continuation of quarterback Patrick Miller `29’s outstanding season, which saw him thrust into the starting role by injuries before leading the group to three consecutive wins. He was stellar in this game as well, passing for 92 yards and rushing for a further 72 yards. His throw to receiver Jack Nye`28, which Nye then ran 55 yards down to the Bowdoin five-yard line, was by far the biggest offensive play of the day. Two plays later, Miller would punch the ball over the goal line himself for the team’s only offensive touchdown of the day.
It was the defense that accounted for the majority of the Colby scoring, as they opened the game by earning a safety. Under pressure in his own endzone from the Mule pass rush, Bowdoin quarterback Soren Hummel threw the ball away, earning an intentional grounding penalty that resulted in an automatic safety and two points for Colby. Later, senior Declan McNamara `26 jumped a Hummel pass on third-and-long, running the interception back for a touchdown and giving the Mules a 16-point lead. Fellow defensive back, Trevor Smith `26, had an interception of his own to begin the fourth quarter, and Hummel’s tough day in the pocket continued when Amir White `28 added another later in the frame. None of these takeaways were able to be capitalized on, and Bowdoin was able to mount something of a comeback during the game’s final minutes.
The Colby drive following the White interception stalled, and Bowdoin took over with a minute remaining in the game. Helped along by a costly penalty on the Colby defense, Hummel found his receiver Slade Postemski for a 28-yard score. The two-point attempt failed, but the Polar Bears had a chance to take the ball back with a successful onside kick. Their attempt did not travel the required ten yards, allowing the Mules to kneel out the remaining time on the clock.
The team will look to build on this success in the coming years, and the emergence of Miller in his first several games provides promise. The Mules graduate none of their top three rushers, an encouraging sign for Cosgrove’s run-heavy offensive scheme. On the defensive side of the ball, the team loses more of its core, as Dennis Dougherty `26, Sebastien Romain `26, Jack Mullen `26, McNamara, and Smith all graduate. Each had started at their respective position for multiple years, and their departure opens a hole that younger players like Nicholas Cox `27, Drew Ramos `27, Cooper Bunnell `28, and White will look to fill. Following the results of the other conference games, the NESCAC standings were finalized, with Trinity College and Wesleyan University sharing the conference title, each having a 7-2 record, while Colby stood alone in second at 6-3. The Mules had beat Trinity in the first game of the season, but later fell short against Wesleyan.
Next season, the NESCAC will allow its football teams to participate in the NCAA Division III playoffs, which offer new opportunities for schools on the national stage. With a strong season to build on, the Mules will hope to continue their season next year at the national level.
~ Matt Quealy `26
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We Inherit Heirlooms. Here’s Why You Should Care.
On Saturday, November 8, 2025, the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts hosted its TEDxColby College event, a day dedicated to hearing the stories of Colby students in relation to one common idea: heirlooms. A small group of speakers each gave presentations, approximately fifteen minutes in length, which investigated what we pass down and what we carry forward. Topics varied from genetically transferred smiles to inherited language. The theme, which was purposefully broad, invited the Colby community to explore the artifacts intrinsic to our own lives, whether a physical object transmitted from generation to generation or a non-material possession—perhaps an ideology—that diffused over time.
Heirlooms are essential. They denote what endures, and what endures has implications not only for individual values, but also communal ones. When we collectively agree on what lasts, we are collectively forming our fundamentals — the commodities, doctrines, mottos, and wisdom that we deem bear some sort of universal criticality. But society is also flawed. We don’t always choose the right heirlooms. We perpetuate phrases, language, and materials that are damaging. We allow the infiltration of certain abstractions or judgements because heirlooms are not just inherited items, but also normalized ones.
Almost synonymous with an heirloom is the concept of standardization. Once we accept what endures, we often forget to question why we’ve chosen such a thing to constitute inordinate importance. That is not to say all heirlooms are bad. Some are beautiful souvenirs of the past, a reminder of our shared heritage, a token of persistence or bravery or accomplishment. There is a reason we hold onto things, and most often that reason is a good one. We hold onto things because they promise some kind of substance, gravity, notion or conviction we believe is deserving of remembrance. Yet, admittedly, there are times when we choose to commemorate the wrong things, when we allow the endurance of an heirloom that is not worthwhile. So, what do we do then?
Christine Park `26 spoke extensively about smiles. Yes, the legacy of grins. Park notes that “growing up, smiles were heirlooms in [her] family, … [carrying] power.” But this power, she asserts, “is unevenly inherited.” Surely smiles are products of former generations, but they have a heritage beyond simply DNA. They are also a result of our monetary environment. “Some people inherit dental disease not through genetics but geography,” Park explains. “Smiles follow socioeconomic lines long before braces even do.” Though an orthodontist in many parts of the United States may serve a vain purpose, in other places, dentistry is a scarce necessity, a lacking resource that is imperative for survival. But, how do we solve the problem of poor smiles and its associated economic pedigree? Perhaps another student’s TED talk has the answer.
Lamiyass Chen `28, once an ESL student, spoke on the importance of language. The vocabulary we pass down is difficult and inherent to our constructs of speech as biased ideologies. Chen ended the talk by stating that while “we do inherit the heirloom of language,” we don’t “have to inherit its flaws.” Chen’s argument can be extrapolated to offer a broader way of thinking. Few heirlooms are intrinsically bad. They endure for reasons that are most often well intended. So, while heirlooms are transferred, communities have the responsibility of deciding which parts of these artifacts carry importance.
Colby’s TEDx event concluded that agency is indisputably attached to heirlooms. It is our obligation to assess what should last. But, we must also recognize that these legacies are complex. They are imperfect. We must do our best to sort out what survives— to allow that which is worthwhile to persist and correct that which is embedded with inequity.
– Maya Corrie `29
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The Lasting Environmental Legacy of Covid
It has been nearly six years since COVID first caused nationwide shutdowns. However, COVID’s legacy is still visible at Colby. In an effort to continue on-campus classes through the worst of the pandemic, single-use plastic became much more widely used everywhere, including on campus. Students were switched to a three-swipe-per-day meal plan, packaged in plastic, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. The plastic water bottle ban, in place since 2011, was scrapped. These ‘temporary’ changes are still in place today.
One place on campus where the lasting change is particularly visible is the Spa. The Spa has always served quick, grab-and-go food. But before COVID, it featured a sandwich bar, bagels, and dramatically less plastic packaging. Back in 2011, one student described it as an “upscale Starbucks,” and it was somewhere you could meet your professor for lunch. Food was served on metal trays, and students brought to-go mugs for their coffee. It was open from 8am-1am and
still served late-night quesadillas, but seemed like a real dining hall. Today, the Spa could accurately be described as a sea of plastic. Whether you want cheese and crackers, a salad, or grapes, your food will come in a single-use plastic clamshell container. This may have been a necessity during COVID, but this waste has long overstayed its welcome.
Plastic water bottles are back, too. The “Take Back the Tap Campaign” was a three-year student-led effort to eliminate bottled water on campus and promote sustainable alternatives. The initiative culminated on Earth Day in 2011, when the remaining bottled water stock was removed from the shelves in the student center. Sarah Sorenson `11 played the key role in organizing and leading the campaign to success. As part of the effort, Colby Athletics announced that starting in the fall of 2011, teams would stop purchasing cases of bottled water for games and road trips. This campaign seemed to mark an important milestone in Colby’s sustainability history, especially in regards to student leadership driving change.
However, all of this progress faced a major setback during COVID. In an effort to reduce the spread of the virus, Colby temporarily disabled water fountains and bottle refill stations, limiting access to tap water across campus. With reusable options no longer convenient or sanitary under health guidelines, many students and staff reverted to using single-use plastic water bottles. While the locked fountains were temporary, it seems that the use of plastic water bottles was not, as they quietly have made their way back into campus life.
The sustainable practices we lost during COVID weren’t there by coincidence. Students like Sorenson fought to implement them, and Colby’s environmental ethic was a practice as much as a marketing tool. But we’re at college for just four years, and student body memory is fleeting. Colby’s shift in plastic use is part of a larger global trend since the pandemic that has contributed to millions of tons of excess plastic, but it’s something that we have the power to reverse. Colby has already proven that it can reduce plastic waste; the last few years have been the exception and not the rule. It’s time to get back to where we used to be.
– Brynne Robbins `26 and Jane Kulevich`29
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Bleed Blue: Why Colby Students Bring Unmatched Pride and Spirit to Every Game
When I first stepped onto Colby’s campus, the first thing I could feel was the energy, a sea of blue and white roaring with pride. Every weekend, students, families, and fans pack the stands to cheer on our Mule athletes with unstoppable spirit. The support is constant, contagious, and unlike anything else in the NESCAC. Walk through Waterville on a game day, and I saw it everywhere: Mules gear, face paint, and smiles that say we bleed blue. Whether it’s the thunder of the crowd at Harold Alfond Stadium or the electric atmosphere courtside at a women’s volleyball match, Colby’s community shows up loud, proud, and all in for the Mules. And I loved it.
But I began to realize that this energy doesn’t just appear on game day; the community builds it. Here at Colby, students don’t just watch their teams, they know the athletes personally. They might share a writing seminar, grab lunch at Dana, or celebrate each other’s wins both on and off the field. Together, we’re a community of friends united by our love for our school and sports. That closeness turns every cheer into something personal, the pride of being part of something bigger than yourself.
Once game day arrives, that sense of connection bursts into full force. The walk I have with friends to Harold Alfond Stadium feels electric: music thumping, Mules colors flying, and students decked out in head-to-toe blue and white. The stands fill long before kickoff, packed with voices ready to cheer every tackle and goal. You can feel the pride in every chant and see it in every high-five. Whether it’s a crisp fall football Saturday or a packed hockey night at Jack Kelley Rink, there’s nothing quite like being part of the Colby crowd — loud, loyal, and all in together.
Recently, I went to watch Colby football in their final game against Bowdoin, and the atmosphere was incredible. Despite the cold Saturday night, the crowd was huge. Students, families, and even other athletic teams came out to support the Mules. The tailgate before the game was just as special, with tables full of food, lights strung across the lot, and families sharing hot drinks and laughter. It felt warm and welcoming, the kind of scene that reminds you what the Colby spirit is all about. Because here, showing up isn’t just about cheering from the stands, it’s about connecting, sharing, and being part of something bigger together.
For the athletes themselves, this support is everything. Hearing the roar from the stands, seeing friends and classmates cheering them on, and feeling the energy on every play motivates them to push harder and perform their best. At Colby, the connection between players and fans goes both ways; the crowd lifts the team, and the team inspires the crowd.
As a player on the men’s soccer team, I know firsthand how much it means to my teammates and me to look up into the stands and see people cheering, whether it’s family, friends, or even someone we don’t know. That support is incredible, and it pushes us to give our absolute best on the field. I remember our first game against Thomas College, when an amazing crowd turned out, some fans even traveled from Thomas, and their energy made us want to play harder, not just for ourselves, but for everyone cheering us on.
That’s what makes Colby’s spirit so special. It’s more than just cheering at a game or wearing blue and white: it’s a shared energy that connects students, families, alums, and athletes alike. Every chant, every high-five, every tailgate conversation is part of a larger tradition of showing up for each other, celebrating one another’s achievements, and taking pride in being part of the Mules community. At Colby, we don’t just watch the games, we live them together. And that’s why, week after week, season after season, we all bleed blue.
~ Kameron Mohammed `29
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Sharing Music, Sharing Community
Two years after its opening in fall 2023, the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts has become one of the College’s most defining spaces, having the unique ability to connect the campus with the greater Waterville community.
Before the Gordon Center, music at Colby lived mostly in Bixler Memorial Library and Lorimer Chapel. The jazz band filled Bixler’s recital hall with brassy improvisations, while the wind ensemble echoed across the chapel’s vaulted ceilings. Those spaces still hold a sense of tradition, but the Gordon Center has made performances more accessible for the Waterville community, allowing residents to enjoy Colby’s music without navigating the College’s hilltop campus. The building’s location on campus has reshaped how students and locals experience the arts. All performances are free and feature Colby’s student musicians and professional musicians from around Waterville, drawing residents, families, and visiting high school students: audiences who might not have visited campus otherwise.
For many student performers, that broader audience adds a deeper sense of purpose to every rehearsal. “One of the best parts of playing with the Wind Ensemble is knowing that people from the greater community [Waterville] are coming to hear us,” said Chase Kanitz `26, a member of the Colby Wind Ensemble since his first year. “It makes the music feel like something we’re sharing with the whole community, not just the College.”
The Colby Wind Ensemble, which recently performed its fall concert Present and Past on Tuesday, November 11, showcased the balance between musical tradition and innovation. The program included Kalos Eidos by Carol Brittin Chambers, a piece reflecting the vivid colors and shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope, and Folk Suite for Band by William Grant Still, who presents traditional spiritual themes in an innovative and celebratory way.
For students, these performances are a chance to explore a wide range of musical styles and traditions. The ensemble’s repertoire includes both modern works and pieces inspired by composers like John Philip Sousa, whose marches helped define American wind music. “Performing in the wind ensemble has helped me appreciate how alive this kind of music still is,” said Tristan Kanitz `26, also a member of the Colby Wind Ensemble since his first year. “We get to play everything from classic marches to contemporary pieces, and the Gordon Center provides that mix with the perfect stage.”
Performances in the Gordon Center are an unforgettable experience for both the Colby students and Waterville. The acoustics are crisp, the lighting draws attention to every instrument, and the energy in the audience reflects a blend of campus and community applause. It’s a space built not just for students but for anyone eager to experience live music in Waterville.
Even with new facilities, Colby’s older buildings remain part of its musical identity. Today, Bixler and Lorimer Chapel are used mainly for academic classes, but their history as performance spaces still resonates on campus. Bixler Library even serves as a hub for music and art books. Once home to student concerts and rehearsals, they reflect Colby’s continued commitment to the arts. The Gordon Center will continue to carry that legacy forward. In a shared appreciation for music and learning, each concert, whether instrumental, choral, or jazzy, will ultimately bring together the students and the Waterville community together.
~ Summer Woo `28
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Voting Is For Everyone: Colby Votes During Election Week
When Olivia Oeltjen `27 arrived on campus in January 2024 as a mid-year GES student, she didn’t know anyone. While most of her new friends hit the slopes, she wandered through Diamond one afternoon, opening random doors just to see what was inside. This act of curiosity led her to a sticker that would end up molding her entire experience here at the College.
“I was just kind of walking around Diamond, opening doors, checking stuff out,” Oeltjen said. “And I see this Colby Votes sticker on the wall, and I’m like, wait, that’s something I’d be really interested in doing. I really believe in civic engagement and voting.”
After emailing Colby Votes to ask about getting involved, Oeltjen soon found herself on a Zoom call with Elizabeth Jabar, the Dean of Civic Engagement. What she thought would be a simple statement of club interest, turned into something so much bigger.
“I really thought it was just a silly little club where I’d get a tabling shift or something,” she said, laughing. “But on the Zoom, she [Elizabeth Jabar] offers me a job. I was literally fresh off the boat from Spain…two weeks later, I’m working the club fair.”
A year and a half later, Oeltjen has become one of the key driving forces behind the College’s civic engagement efforts. She helps organize everything from voter registration events to volunteer coalitions and educational events. This fall, she worked to expand on election education leading up to the pivotal week of November 4th.
“This year was kind of an off-off season, it wasn’t like a midterm or presidential election, so people weren’t as engaged,” she explained. “But I wanted to build a coalition of volunteers who are interested in working with us so we can tap into it for later years. So I really advertised and pushed trying to get as many people involved as possible”.
To raise this awareness, Oeltjen and her team of 30 volunteers went and hosted tabling events in the Spa, designed bright orange postcards explaining local referendums, and worked with Colby Libraries for National Voter Registration Day.
“Honestly, this year was definitely more low-key,” she said. “Last year we had concerts with CMI and tie-dye T-shirts…but this year it was about making sure people knew the election was happening.”
Her efforts were extremely relevant given the issues at stake. In the November 4th, 2025 Maine elections, voters faced two major referendum questions that drew a semi-high turnout from an off-year vote. Question 1, which proposed adding photo-ID requirements and structure rules on absentee and early voting, was rejected by about 64% of voters, preserving Maine’s existing election system. However, Question 2, a “red flag” run law measure allowing courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed dangerous, passed with about 63% of support.
“These referendums on the ballot, [guns and voting access], were the kind of ‘sexy questions,’” Oeltjen said. “Stuff that’s already in the news, and highly politicized issues that people talk about…people actually care about that. It gets them talking.”
For Oeltjen, that curiosity is something she hopes continues to grow. “The kind of student who’s going to policy events or reading the news, those are people who are already civically engaged,” she said. “You just have to make sure they know when elections are happening.”
One of Oeltjen’s main goals is to make voting accessible for everyone, especially first-time voters. She recalled a chaotic moment before Election Day this year when she realized first year students couldn’t access their residency confirmation letters on the MyColby platform, which are required to register to vote in Waterville.
“I found out the day before the election,” she said. “I jumped out of bed, ran to the registrar, called the city clerk, my boss [Elizabeth Jabar], even Dean Gus…So I was running around on the phone with so many different people because it means so much to me. It was chaos, but we figured it out.”
She laughed, remembering the frenzy of it all. “I was like, this group of kids is getting to the polls, so help me God. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure this group of 700 kids are able. Even if only three freshmen voted, it would’ve been worth it.”
Some of the most rewarding moments, for Oeltjen, come from helping students who are new to the voting process. “Sometimes people come up embarrassed, like, ‘I don’t know how to register,’” she said. “But I never want anyone to feel that way. I want to create a nonjudgemental environment where asking questions is okay because voting is hard, it’s complicated, and there are a lot of barriers…There’s no such thing as a dumb question. My job is to help you vote, that’s literally what I study and what I’m paid to do.”
As the state rejected stricter voter ID laws and upheld its current voting access, Oeltjen reflected on how it felt like a form of validation of all the work her and Colby Votes do on campus and in the community. “I’m really excited for 2026 because Maine is such an important state,” she said. “People always say, ‘My vote doesn’t matter,’ but it really will. This election’s going to be close, and Colby students’ voices make a difference.”
When asked about the future of voter education on campus, Oeltjen paused and smiled before saying, “Voting is for everyone. And I think it’s so cool that this community can influence real elections in that way.”
~ Mia Dinunzio `28
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Food Waste: Looking to the Past and Future
Food waste is a recurring problem in America today. We are situated in the context of the climate crisis, an urgent and pressing matter in part caused by the human tendency to produce waste of all kinds.
As Thanksgiving approaches, the government shutdown that began on October 1st has threatened the SNAP benefits of millions of United States citizens, putting additional stress on a program that the current administration’s tax and spending bills have restricted.
The College is situated in Waterville, Maine: a city whose residents make up 32.9% of food stamp recipients in Kennebec County. The state of Maine as a whole has the highest rate of child food insecurity in New England.
Michael Lugo `27 feels that the College could be doing more to contribute to food donation programs in the area. He was shocked when he found out just how much good food was going to waste here at the College, explaining, “Last year, me and my friends, we were using spa swipes nonstop because we were hungry and on rugby and we needed food…at four o’clock, when they had lunch, we were like, ‘oh, sorry, it’s four, can we still get food?’ And they were like, ‘grab whatever you want because we’re going to throw it out.’”
This waste seemed entirely unnecessary to him. “I think it could be donated and redistributed to food banks or whatever is necessary. Like, the fact that this is just getting thrown out daily is a massive problem.”
The College has put various initiatives to reduce waste in place in the past. For example, in 2008, “trayless dining” was implemented, and the College removed trays from the dining halls to encourage people to take a more reasonable amount of food.
Another way that the College diverts some of its food waste is by composting food scraps. Within the dishwashing rooms of the dining halls, there are composting bins, into which leftover food scraps are scraped, as well as tea bags, coffee grounds, and the like.
However, there is one program that actively fights both food waste and hunger which the College has failed to maintain: the Food Recovery Network. According to the organization’s website, “Food Recovery Network unites 8,000+ college students, food suppliers, farmers, and local businesses across the U.S. in the fight against climate change and hunger by recovering surplus food from across the supply chain and donating it to local nonprofit organizations that feed people experiencing hunger.”
In 2016, by working with the Food Recovery Network, the College donated 903 pounds of food to the surrounding community. However, because the school’s partnership with the organization was centered around a club, it faded out of existence once the students who ran the club graduated.
The program was brought back again by another student, Michael Jimenez `23, who collaborated with the Joseph Family Spa to collect and redistribute the uneaten food at the end of each week. However, after his graduation, that initiative disappeared as well.
Lugo says, “if there was some sort of Colby-run thing, that would be awesome. I think when things are clubs, they’re going to end eventually, and it’s kind of, like, I feel like this is something more important than a club. People need to eat.”
Having lived in Waterville for years before attending the College, Lugo has experienced the impact that food insecurity has had on the community, making this issue stick out to him even more.
In response to the disruption of SNAP benefits, various on-campus clubs, such as the Colby College Student Government Association (SGA), the Colby Outing Club (COC), and the Woodsmen Team have brought food drives to the campus. These efforts highlight the importance of food in the current moment, and show how much students at the College care about food insecurity.
For all of its sustainability efforts and its commitment to improving its relationship with Waterville, it seems that the College might do well to consider building a lasting partnership with the Food Recovery Network, rather than leaving the fate of the College’s leftover food to chance.
~ Anna Izquierdo `29
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On Studying Abroad
Studying is ostensibly the reason for my present abroadness. It is the first word in “study abroad,” after all. That’s why, on first arriving in Edinburgh, I was prepared to be all kinds of studious. With steely resolve, I acquainted myself with the library facilities closest to my flat, and I started going over the reading lists I’d been assigned. I read everything marked “essential” and a few of the things marked “recommended.” I read each word. I read slowly and meticulously and enthusiastically.
In the UK, university-level academics are pretty laissez-faire. At the University of Edinburgh, I’m enrolled in three classes, none of which involve more than four hours of classroom time per week. All of my final grades will be determined by six assignments, two per class: a midterm and a final. There are weekly readings, but nobody quizzes me on them. And that’s it.
As you will quickly learn if you, too, study abroad in the UK, this model puts most of the responsibility on the student. The depth of your education is a factor of your desire to sit in the library, reading on your computer. Of course, your desire to do this is itself tied (depending on how disciplined a student you are) to whether or not you’re interested in the classes you’re taking.
Unfortunately, this presents another hurdle, which is specific to exchange students. The University of Edinburgh has a reputation for excellence in the humanities, and that’s part of why I, a philosophy major, enrolled. However, because of that reputation, humanities courses are in high demand, and as an exchange student, I had lowest priority in the course selection process. I was also only permitted to enroll in one upper-level philosophy course. It’s a handicap that leaves exchange students picking over the crumbs. For example, one of the courses I’m enrolled in was my 16th choice out of 20, and I got into it only after submitting three course request forms.
It’s enough to say that I’m not very interested in the classes I’m taking, and my once-fervent reading pace has changed accordingly.
As you evaluate your study abroad options, it’s also worth remembering that Colby College is a good school by most measures. Small classes, excellent professors, intelligent peers, high-quality facilities, and extensive academic resources are all features of a Colby education. It’s hard to trade up. You probably won’t.
These factors have led me to conclude that studying abroad isn’t about doing school in another country. If that’s your only motivation, I’d suggest simply not doing it.
It is, rather, about being in another country, where you will also do school. Your library will be the airports you stumble through at four in the morning on your way to Madrid (I’m writing this article from an airplane). Your books will be the conversations you have with strangers, and your lecture halls, the grocery stores and restaurants you learn to navigate like a local. When the facts and figures you absorb while writing your midterm essays fade into a cloudy notion of their referent subjects, it’s the abroad part of study abroad that’ll remain intact.
Obviously, don’t take these words as an advertisement for slacking off. The precise details of credit-and-grade transfer are nebulous to me, but I suspect that they’re still relevant, especially for those who hope to attend graduate school. Instead, I recommend expanding your notion of “study” to encompass the whole experience. Travel, exploration, and meeting new people aren’t peripheral to your studying. They’re a core part of it.
~ Elias Kemp `27
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A Reason to Wake Up: Sunrise Bagels Is A Community Institution
“It’s like food for the soul. There’s nothing like eating a good bagel.”
This is the ethos of Tiffany Lopes and her entire team at Sunrise Bagel. Not only do they serve up hundreds of hand made, deliciously creative bagels, sandwiches, and pastries each week, but they do it with a genuine smile on their faces and a palpable joy for their jobs. I have truly never had a bad customer experience there. (And I’m not just saying that in the hopes of getting free food.) Pre-ski days, post-nights out, mid-day pick-me-ups: they do it all.
But how, exactly, did this Waterville institution come to be?
Lopes, the owner and founder, was a stay-at-home mom who “had that entrepreneurial itch for years but did not want to take away from [her] mom duties because [she] loved what [she] did.” An avid home baker, Lopes had always had a particular appreciation for sourdough baking, but had no formal training in any commercial kitchens. But when her third and youngest child left for college, Lopes found herself an empty nester ready for her next chapter. And it was her youngest daughter, who has since graduated and returned to work in the family business, who pushed her mother to follow her passion: “Enough thinking. It’s time for doing.”
The first location opened in the south end of Waterville in 2021. Besides opening a restaurant during COVID, Lopes and her team dealt with rocks thrown through the windows of their new store, minimal space, and Lopes and only other baker being responsible for all of the production. In 2023, they opened in Augusta, and that location became the hub for all of their bakery production. Now, a team of six bakers meets at the Augusta location every morning at 3:00 a.m. to prepare bagels to be distributed to their other two (soon to be three!) locations. In 2024, they opened in Oakland. This was a particularly special store for Lopes because it was completely a blank canvas: they had no architect, no bathroom, not even any water or electricity. Their fourth location will have its grand opening in Gardiner on December 19 of this year.
Lopes emphasized her appreciation for both her family and the surrounding community. While she runs much of the production and store management, her husband works behind the scenes with business operations. Her staff is unfailingly kind and hard working, and operates under the motto of “Show up. Work Hard. And take the high road.” Management is very passionate about providing their staff a living wage, and soon hopes to provide full health insurance on top of their vision, dental, and IRA benefits. As many of Lopes’ team are young, she really emphasizes teaching them how to save money and build a career, but this is not the only place Lopes’ maternal instincts are demonstrated in her business.
Before the bagel business, Lopes was a yoga teacher and carried the idea that you should “be kind to everyone you meet, because everyone you are seeing fights battles you know nothing about.” For Lopes, the long days are all worth it because she gets to feed people; she says that “food is basically my love language.”
She also considers herself a people pleaser, and gets immense joy out of being creative with her products. As the business’ success continues to grow, Lopes laments that she cannot be in all three places at once. Her perfect Saturday includes stopping at each of her three stores to connect with her staff and the community. With expansion comes some loss of flexibility, but Lopes emphasized her gratitude for her team. At the beginning, she “didn’t know how [she] was going to sell a bagel and a cup of coffee and keep the lights on.”
But they are so much more than a bagel and a cup of coffee. They are a community. Lopes recounted a favorite memory with a customer: a woman in her nineties who came in within the first six months of opening and had never had a bagel before. Lopes, a natural giver, recounts the enormous smile her customer walked out with, after not only being given a bagel on the house, but a history of the food’s culture, too. “You never know what people are going through,” she says.
Beyond individuals, Lopes looks to the broader community. Their Za’atar bagel (a personal favorite of mine, particularly with lox, chive cream cheese, and onion) is a nod to the history of Waterville and strong Lebanese influence. The spices are all bought locally. “The Caroline” is a Sunrise specialty, named in honor of Lopes’ late sister. It started as a savory treat: a bagel with five half cuts, filled with cream cheese, dipped in garlic butter, and warmed up to order. There is also a sweet version with cream cheese and raspberry jam), and Lopes says the first time she made it Sweet Caroline came on the radio, and she knew it was meant to be. Everything she and her team does is absolutely full of love.
And the bagels are really damn good.
Despite growing up around a large Lebanese community, I had never had a Za’tar spiced bagel before coming to rural Maine. It quickly became a favorite. A KenneBEC on an onion bagel is the perfect hungover morning treat; the dried onions are somehow caramelized without being crispy or burnt, and it nearly becomes sweet. The “Kickin’ Maple Honey” is quite simply one of the best things I have ever tasted. It needs nothing besides a quick smear of chive cream cheese. It is the best, most balanced version of hot honey with an infusion of delicious, carby, sourdough bagel.
That’s another thing: all of Sunrise’s bagels are sourdough based. I got to see the kitchen, including several buckets of mother yeast. (My father, like everyone else, began baking sourdough bread during COVID. It is delicious, but starter runs thicker than blood. He might need some lessons from Lopes and her team.) They also steam their bagels instead of the typical boiling process. Whatever they do, it is obviously working.
You cannot go to any of the Sunrise locations on a Sunday morning without seeing another member of the Colby community. You will often also see little kids getting ready for their soccer games, families smushed around a small table, and friends young and old gossiping about the events of the previous night. There is a reason the phrase “breaking bread” is such an enduring expression. Because food is a tangible expression of love, warmth, and care. Sunrise epitomizes this. And you get a pretty special bagel out of it, too.
~ Charley DiAdamo `27
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A Dead Internet
It is no easy task spotting AI-generated content in today’s world. Too often, I find myself liking a “viral” short-form video on social media only to learn later through a different video that it was generated using artificial intelligence. AI chatbots, images, and videos existed before OpenAI and Sora, yet their indistinguishability from non-generated content is unprecedented. A report by Zebracat from March states that 52% of short-form videos on Instagram and TikTok incorporate some AI-generated element. With other reports also indicating that more than half of all online content is AI-generated, the fear of manipulation is at its peak. I want to explore two concepts – first, the extent to which AI videos may be harmful, and second, why it matters.
Misinformation is the main consequence of AI-generated content. For most people, this leaves out a sizable chunk of content whose existence goes hand-in-hand with the recognition of its artificiality. For example, “Italian brainrot” videos are created to gain attention primarily through entertainment – a kind of self-infantilizing entertainment that still relies on the fact that these characters exist in a separate realm from real existence. The more detrimental category of AI-generated content is one that cannot easily be distinguished, or even worse, one that is intended to deceive. I am not only referring to the TikTok video of a National Guard soldier in Los Angeles saying, “I’m giving you a behind the scenes look… how we prep our crowd control gear for today’s gassing,” or the video on X of a protestor saying, “I don’t know, I was paid to be here, and I just want to destroy stuff.” I am also referencing the seemingly wholesome home camera footages of wild animals jumping on a trampoline. These are all problematic because they intend to provoke an emotion on the basis of the content’s resemblance to reality. They provide a saccharine-like satisfaction through a caricature of those on the other side that reflects our preconceived attitudes toward them. The same is true of the animals jumping on the trampoline. It provokes warm and fuzzy emotions by portraying wild animals as playful and intrigued by human creations, yet the viewers must be misinformed to derive entertainment from it.
Why is it problematic to let our emotions – no matter how harmless they are– be swayed by AI-generated content? Humans have come to process only a small proportion of information available at any given moment. We prioritize information based on its reward or novelty and elements that are not worth our consideration fade into the background. However, when scrolling through social media, especially short-form content, the reward-inducing nature of the act itself makes it more worthwhile to perceive the content as important. The short length makes it easy to flow seamlessly through countless 15-second reels, reducing any time to reflect on the content or be critical of it. This is already problematic for non-deceptive kinds of AI content, as we find ourselves “brainrotting” watching reels that are clearly fake. For the deceptive kinds, such as the aforementioned examples, our expectations and prejudices about something in the real world are fully satisfied through the manipulative prompt that generated the content. The prejudices, then, can be reinforced in reference to the video.
There are plenty of real videos of protestors standing up against Homeland Security agents that weren’t generated solely to affirm the viewers’ prejudices. There may not be genuine footage of bears jumping on a trampoline, but there are real videos – one uploaded in 2008 – of wild foxes on a trampoline. Searching for these videos, instead of letting social media feed us content, prevents the error of developing beliefs about real life entities from artificial references. Sure, they can be cherry-picked nonetheless, but at least they don’t act as a permanent echo chamber in the way AI-generated content does.
~ Benjamin Ha `27
December 21, 2025
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