Potash Hill

Inside Front Cover

Potash Hill

Published twice every year, Potash Hill shares highlights of what Marlboro College community members, in both undergraduate and graduate programs, are doing, creating, and thinking. The publication is named after the hill in Marlboro, Vermont, where the college was founded in 1946. “Potash,” or potassium carbonate, was a locally important industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, obtained by leaching wood ash and evaporating the result in large iron pots. Students and faculty at Marlboro no longer make potash, but they are very industrious in their own way, as this publication amply demonstrates.

Alumni Director: Maia Segura ’91
Editor: Philip Johansson
Photo Editor: Richard Smith
Staff Photographers: Clayton Clemetson ’19, David Teter ’20, and Emily Weatherill ’21
Design: Falyn Arakelian

Potash Hill welcomes letters to the editor. Mail them to: Editor, Potash Hill, Marlboro College, P.O. Box A, Marlboro, VT 05344, or send email to pjohansson@marlboro.edu. The editor reserves the right to edit for length letters that appear in Potash Hill.

Front Cover: A basket woven from hand-pounded ash by Judy Dow, a teacher of traditional Abenaki culture and student in Marlboro’s MA in Teaching for Social Justice program, demonstrates traditional “cowass” designs: turns and curls representing birds, snails, and porcupine quills. “Wabanaki people have always made ash baskets,” says Judy. “However, this style is called a fancy basket, and was an adaptation during the late 1800s.” Judy shares lessons for adapting to impending environmental, social, and economic changes in her article, "Going Through the Narrows." 

About Marlboro College
Marlboro College provides independent thinkers with exceptional opportunities to broaden their intellectual horizons, benefit from a small and close-knit learning community, establish a strong foundation for personal and career fulfillment, and make a positive difference in the world. At our campus in the town of Marlboro, Vermont, students engage in deep exploration of their interests— and discover new avenues for using their skills to improve their lives and benefit others—in an atmosphere that emphasizes critical and creative thinking, independence, an egalitarian spirit, and community.  

“Our job is to make sure that every international student at Marlboro has the best possible experience that they can get, and we can’t wait to welcome you here,” say Dora Musini, international services coordinator, and Emma Huse, experiential learning and global engagement coordinator. They were featured in a video produced by students as part of the national #YouAreWelcomeHere campaign, which offers welcoming messages to international students around the world. See the video.