2010 Update from Alexander Langendorf, our 2009 Scholarship Recipient
This Fall term I took classes in the philosophy, music, and mathematics departments. Social and Political Philosophy was a discussion-based class on justice as it relates to the state. The subject was examined through a succession of philosophical paradigms, beginning with libertarianism and ending with postmodernism. I profited greatly from the varied insights of my classmates. Musical Cultures of the Caribbean was a freshmen seminar, one of several into which freshmen are placed. A regional introduction to ethnomusicology, the class combined musicology, anthropology, and history in an appealing way. Multivariable Calculus is the third course in Carleton’s calculus sequence. I took it primarily as a prerequisite for other math classes. The teacher was exceptional. All three classes reinforced for me the truth that you get out of something what you put into it. Though my high school teachers demanded independent thinking, my learning was less explicitly my responsibility. I appreciate the premium on self-direction.
Carleton College very much identifies as a community. I have enjoyed its active, inclusive campus life and the freedom to find one’s place in it. Already I have met wonderful, probing, decent people whom I am lucky to have as friends, fellow-students, and teachers. On the other hand, I have sometimes felt the college to be segregated from Northfield, the surrounding city. I plan to become better involved with the larger community in the coming terms. I am happy to say, though, that my first term was largely a positive experience and I feel ever-more privileged to attend such a great school.
-Alexander Langendorf