What’s the first image that pops into your head when you hear the word “design”? Do you see Ferraris? Curtain catalogues? Starving hipsters? Or do you imagine an open-concept industrial warehouse where professionals from the full range of intelligences work simultaneously to turn forward-thinking insights into real-life consumer products and services that likely have improved your own life?
“I’ve just finished filming my work on the next ‘Hunger Games,’” Jeffrey Wright, class of ’87, casually said. Starring in big name films is nothing new for Wright, who’s played roles in dozens of high budget commercial films. Indeed, this Emmy, Golden Globe, and AFI Award-winning actor — appearing on big screens worldwide — is an exceptional member of Amherst College’s already impressive list of alumni.
Growing Up in D.C.
Attending Amherst in the mid 1970s, it likely would have been impossible to hide oneself from the larger political and social issues that gripped the U.S. as a whole. These issues manifested themselves at Amherst as well: the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the rise of the environmental justice movement. However, while many saw and understood these issues, few actively contributed to social justice initiatives.
Today, Peggy McKay Shinn ’85 is known for her achievements in journalism and her sports enthusiasm — she is a four-time Harold Hirsch award winner and contributor to publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Mountain Sports and Living and the Boston Globe, just to name a few.
Debby Applegate ’89 began her relationship with fellow Amherst College alum Henry Ward Beecher as a student employee in Frost Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department. It was love at first sight: a love, in fact, that would span more than 20 years. Applegate recalls, “Henry was so open-minded and so open-hearted … He was funny and lovable, an example of an average American who rose to fame.” And, although their age difference was quite large (Beecher was a graduate of the class of 1834), Applegate made it work, winning the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography in the process.
Sonya Clark ’89, award-winning artist and designer, is always making art. As the current chair of the Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Clark finds that everyday conversations with both students and colleagues, whether or not they concern art specifically, contribute significantly to her artwork.
Asked to reflect on her most memorable moments at Amherst, writer Lauren Groff ’01 immediately recalled one cold spring morning at crew practice when coach Bill Stekl gave her the motivation she needed to start rowing for the day.
