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North Lawn
 Students who have been lobstermen, refugees, filmmakers, Jackson Laboratory researchers, veterinary assistants, farmers, beekeepers and ethnographers in the United States, Mexico, and Uganda-among many other pursuits-received diplomas from College of the Atlantic Saturday during the college's 36th commencement exercises. The 66 students represented 23 states and 11 nations, making this graduation the college's most diverse in its 36-year history.
JoAnne Carpenter, an artist and art history teacher who has
 been teaching at the college since its first year, was the graduation speaker. "I learned to think, to teach and to paint at this special and wonderful little college," said Carpenter, who is the first member of the faculty to retire. In her honor, the college has created a position of faculty emeritus, which Carpenter now holds.
 Musing over the process of shaping COA and defining its mission and one major, human ecology, Carpenter said, "At COA teaching goes in every direction. Faculty learn from students, students learn from the maintenance crew, students advise students, and staff and students help make administrative decisions. If art can help to educate, so too can a really good community, such as the one we have achieved at College of the Atlantic. In this intimate setting, each of us is a mirror
 for each other where we can question our values and motives. Perhaps most important is the respect with which we treat each other in spite of divergent backgrounds, jobs and positions on issues."
Change, and questions that lead to change became a theme of the ceremonies as Amanda Spector of Kingsville, MD, one of four student speakers, told the audience how she came to COA. She had visited a class at the college, she said, and was made so uncomfortable by the challenges to her own belief system that she had to apply. "Fall down," she told her fellow graduates. "Slide, and then get up again."
Another student speaker, Ana Maria Rey Martinez from Bucaramanga, Colombia, asked her fellow students to be willing to take risks and realize the place for uncertainty and randomness.
Samuel Hamill, Jr., chair of the college's board, spoke about how human ecology is like democracy; both have the power to change the world. Similarly, David Hales, president of the college, told the students, "Change this world: Change. Live your values. ... Change yourselves, change your communities, change your country. ... Change this world."
 During the ceremonies, honorary degrees were given to Henry Schmelzer, president and CEO of the Maine Community Foundation, and Elizabeth Straus, both of Somesville, ME. Additional student speakers were Jamus Drury of Green's Island, ME and Sean Berg of Abingdon, MD. Noah Krell, a 2001 COA graduate who taught at the college this spring, introduced Carpenter. This was the college's first graduation as a NetZero campus for carbon emissions. All carbon emissions associated with bringing guests to the college for these ceremonies will be offset through verifiable means by the college. This is also the college's fourth no- or reduced-waste ceremony.
National honors for members of the Class of 2008 include a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, the college's 25th and two recipients of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Peace Project awards. Nearly 50 percent of the class Brimm
 gained international experience through COA programs, internships, residencies or other means, including participation in United Nations-sponsored environmental conferences. Additionally, members of the class have been published in scholarly journals and participated in international academic conferences. For their final projects, students have completed novels, studied the impact of genes on mice biomechanics, begun gardens, mounted photography and art exhibits, made videos, created ethnographies and researched such topics as food systems, the behavior of killer whales and the distribution of antiretroviral drugs in low-income countries.
This is the fifth graduating class to include members of the Davis United World College Scholars Program. Thanks to funding from Gale and Shelby Davis, graduates from any of the ten international United World College campuses admitted to COA receive scholarship support.
College of the Atlantic's distinctive curriculum is interdisciplinary, non-departmental and emphasizes individualized study, independent research and real world application of knowledge. Theory and practice, process and product, reflection and activism are integral to a COA education.
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