51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

On the evening of Friday, May 2, 2025, at Martha Hill Dance Theater at 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ, Bachelors of Arts students who produced Advanced Work in Dance performed To the Point: Senior Dance Concert.

A Boy Named Salmon, a play by Rachel McCauley ’26, wasn’t just a production—it’s a deeply personal, defiant, and resonant exploration of identity, belonging, and the discomfort of truth-telling in so-called progressive spaces. It was presented in Margot Tenney Theater on Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9, 2025. 

The scent of simmering curry and cooking rice filled the Student Center Kitchen at 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ on Saturday afternoon, May 3, as 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ students and members of the local Japanese community gathered to cook, connect, and celebrate International Food Day.

The juniors and seniors in Sue Rees’s Animations Projects class have walked away with several valuable lessons this term. Stills from their projects are up in an exhibition in the Barn Annex through May 16.

Each winter, 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ students step outside the classroom to take part in Field Work Term—a six-week immersion in the professional world designed to help them deepen their studies, gain real-world experience, and explore potential career paths and contribute valuable skills to companies and nonprofits.

Andrea Lara '26 studies Biology, Latin American Studies (Spanish), and Creative Writing at Bennington. Following her education and writing internship at Uptown Stories, Lara was offered a part-time position as development assistant for the arts organization. 

Georgia Hauser '26 studies Visual Arts at Bennington. Last summer, Hauser completed a Field Work Term experience as a volunteer for Project 412, which helped bring artist Thomas Dambo's Alexa's Elixir to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. 

 On view in the Barn Annex through April 21.

A 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ team received certificates of appreciation from the State of Vermont for their work analyzing well-testing data in a PFAS contamination zone around former ChemFab Corp. factories in the town of Bennington.

Erin Racklin '26 studies Psychology and Anthropology at Bennington. During the winter, Racklin completed a Field Work Term experience at , which provides Social Emotional Learning (SEL) tools to K-12 schools.

Alex Bregy '26 studies Creative Writing and Film at Bennington. During the winter, Bregy completed a Field Work Term experience split between two sites: the and the .

Bennington students reflect on their winter 2025 Field Work Term experiences, honing and testing classroom knowledge in their independent projects and internships.

Jacqueline Walsh '26 studies Politics and Public Action at Bennington, with supplemental focus on Spanish and statistics. During the winter, Walsh completed a Field Work Term experience interning with the .

Nine 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ students–the largest cohort to date–have been selected as Frankenthaler Fellows for the 2025 Museum Fellows Term, a study-away program that provides participants with practical, professional art world internship experience working at a major cultural institution in New York City for five months.

Thirty-six Bennington students have been selected for paid fellowship opportunities during the 2025 Field Work Term.

Jen Nash '26 transferred to Bennington from Los Angeles Valley College. She shared her favorite experiences studying Drama at Bennington.

Students present at the first International Multilingual Creative Writing Conference in New York.

Yami Antonio ’25 studies Psychology and Anthropology at Bennington. She spent her summer Field Work Term in Kuala Lumpur and Penang as a student ethnographic researcher for the Consortium of Forced Migration, Displacement and  Education.

Coco Rohde '26 reflected on her Field Work Term experience at Brooklyn Children’s Theatre.

Constance and Grace, a play by Miriam Campbell '26, was selected for the 2024 New South Young Playwrights Festival at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta.

Raelyn Smith '26 studies industrial-organizational psychology at Bennington, with coursework focusing on a combination of group psychology, social psychology, and political economy. During the summer, Smith completed a Field Work Term experience interning within the human resources department of the .

Julius Boxer-Cooper '26 studies Music, Linguistics, and Chinese at Bennington and is currently studying abroad in Taiwan. During summer 2024, Boxer-Cooper completed a Field Work Term experience at .

Will Parker '26 studies Acting in Theater at Bennington. During the 2024 Field Work Term, Parker worked at in New York City.

At Bennington, José Rubén Ruiz Garrido '26 studies Drama with a focus on Acting and Stage Design. During his Field Work Term experience as a Lucille Lortel Fellow at , he gained a new approach to theater and a different perspective on the arts.

Tisa Shrestha '26 studies Architecture at Bennington and supplements her Plan with coursework in Mathematics and Environmental Studies. During the 2024 Field Work Term, Shrestha worked at (LI-BIRD), a Nepal-based NGO that supports the sustainable management of natural resources in support of smallholder farmers.

Ananda Zammaron Carbajal '26 studies Dance and Drama at Bennington, with a particular focus on acting and stage management. She spent her 2024 Field Work Term interning at , a film production company founded by Bryn Mooser ’01.

Paulo Araujo ’26 was home in Mozambique in 2019, the year two powerful cyclones, the most destructive in decades, hit the country within just a few weeks. It was the first time in recorded history two strong tropical cyclones struck in the same season. The storms killed 603 people, injured more than 1,500, and put 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian services.

During most ceramics classes, the pieces students make are theirs to do with what they like. They keep them or give them to family and friends. Students in Anina Major’s  in the Fall of 2023 had other plans. Each student crafted four mugs that they donated to ¸é´Ç³ú’s, the 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ cafe, this term.

35 Bennington students have been selected for paid fellowship opportunities during the 2024 Field Work Term.

On the final Wednesday of the fall 2023 term, students in faculty member Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie’s course prepared to present their final projects.