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For outdoor enthusiasts, few things are as appealing and exciting as biking, hiking and rock climbing. All three of these require physical strength and substantial amounts of movement. But on the Bruce Climbing Wall in Hamilton’s Blood Fitness Center, climbers are lent a helping hand—literally. In conjunction with Art 307, Advanced 3D and Material Studies, under Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh, environmental studies major Lauren Duncan ’10 created hand-shaped climbing wall holds that are not only artistic and significant, but also functional. She calls her project “LED by hand.”

Every morning, Hanna Kahrmann-Zadak ’12 rides her bike from outside Clinton up the Hill to get to the lab. But before reaching her destination, she makes three pit stops to pick up her samples from two wells and nearby Oriskany Creek. She and Associate Professor of Geosciences Todd Rayne are embarking on a project that could prove extremely significant, especially to the community of Clinton: plotting the changes in the components of groundwater and of Oriskany Creek as they correlate to precipitation events.

Personal and heated, debates over the American healthcare system have been raging all over the country, making healthcare one of the US’s most pressing domestic issues. Hamilton alumni from the class of 1970 addressed this issue in an Alumni College during this year’s reunion.

Clad in pseudo-space-age garb, Sarah Andrus ’12 looks somewhat out of place striding through a grassy field and not bounding over lunar craters. Despite her more mundane surroundings, Andrus’ quest still leads to an exploration of sorts: she is collecting samples of honeybees and fruit flies for her research with Associate Professor of Biology Herman Lehman. These samples may help to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the effects of a little-understood compound called octopamine.

Over the course of Reunions ’10 Weekend, the speakers at the 30+ Alumni College events informed alumni on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the most pressing concerns on an international scale to the history and current debates of Hamilton itself. Nine such events, described below, focused on the current state of American healthcare, Hamilton during the Vietnam War, an alumna's rise to prominence in the world of NASCAR, writing and fine arts as career paths, political engagement in current and recent generations, investment strategies and the challenges of entrepreneurship.