2020 – Daniel Goodman
The Lafayette Ideal can be encapsulated by the definition of the word ‘creation’: the action or process of bringing something into existence. Simply, the act of creating asks the creator to look beyond themselves and materialize something previously unseen. This began my Freshman year. Admiring the iconography of each Commons within the relatively new Commons system, I sought to sculpt the Alliance emblem representing my residence hall. Unknown at the time, this would eventually lead to my selection as a CaPA Scholar and partnership with Lafayette to create the remaining four Commons emblems. The complete set now awaits installment on campus as a lasting physical legacy to further connect future students to one another. Becoming both an Admissions Ambassador and Orientation Leader involved creation of a
different kind. In these leadership roles, I was charged with fostering a sense of robust campus community. For the prospective students interested in Lafayette, that meant highlighting the myriad opportunities and experiences awaiting them. For the incoming students, that meant equipping them with the knowledge, support, and confidence to begin carving their own Lafayette path. Then there are instances of creation with the greater community in mind. My Honors thesis centers around the ecological impact of upcoming dam removals on the Bushkill Creek, hopefully contributing to a safer, more eco‐friendly removal process. Leadership within Hillel meant developing programming that simultaneously made Jewish students proud of our rich heritage and engaged those wanting to learn more. Co‐founding the Mental Health Coalition not only raised money to support mental health efforts, but united the campus in holding difficult conversations surrounding it. The impact of Lafayette himself is forever ingrained in the history of the college. I’m appreciative to have had the opportunities to look beyond myself, to embrace, and hopefully contribute to the Marquis’ legacy.
Other Information:
Academic Activity/Award 1:
Biology Honors Thesis ‐ Pre dam‐removal risk assessment of Atrazine in the Bushkill Creek|1|My honors thesis investigates the effect of atrazine, a commonly‐used herbicide, on macroinvertebrates in the Bushkill Creek prior to upcoming dam removals. Specifically, I’m focusing on how the mobilization of legacy sediment behind each dam may release atrazine into the water and how these elevated levels, along with those already present in the system, may influence the behavior and mortality of highly‐abundant macroorganisms. My project is three‐fold: a series of atrazine toxicity assays on Hyalella azteca, extractions of sediment cores to quantify atrazine levels found in the Bushkill Creek’s sediment, and creating a computer model to help predict the population‐level impact of atrazine on naturally‐occurring Hyalella azteca in the Bushkill.
Academic Activity/Award 2:
Independent Research|0.5|My independent research during the Spring 2019 semester laid the groundwork for the thesis project I’m currently pursuing. During this semester, I assisted Caroline Bottega ’19 and Alison Baranovic ’19 with data collection and macroorganism processing for their respective theses. Caroline’s project centered around heavy metals within the Bushkill Creek’s legacy sediments, and much of the work completed with her informed the skills and ideas that would later develop into my own thesis project.
Academic Activity/Award 3:
Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors Society|1|I’ve been a member of Beta Beta Beta since its inception on campus during my Junior year.
Academic Activity/Award 4:
Dean’s List|2|I’ve earned Dean’s List recognition the Fall semester of both my Junior and Senior year. I’m on track to earn Dean’s List recognition for the current semester.
Academic Activity/Award 5:
Winter Interim Trip ‐ Journey to Rome|~3 weeks|Through my CaPA Scholarship, I participated in the ‘Journey to Rome’ interim trip the winter of my Junior year. Co‐led by Professors Markus Dubischar and Nestor Gil, we began our trip in Munich, Germany then traveled through the Alps to Verona, Rome, Naples, and Pompeii, Italy. The trip was designed to mimic the route travelers throughout history would take into Rome. Throughout the trip’s 2.5 weeks, I learned about the history, cultural norms, art styles, and religious significance behind the Ancient Roman empire and its subsequent societies. This was truly a once‐in‐a‐lifetime trip and I’m thankful for the opportunity!
Academic Activity/Award 6:
SEA‐PHAGES research and TA|2|I was selected to participate in the SEA‐PHAGES program my freshman year, and then selected as one of two TA’s during my Sophomore spring semester. The SEA‐PHAGES lab introduced myself and my peers to the world of research as
Campus Service Activity /Award 1:
CaPA Scholar|3.5|I was awarded a Creative and Performing Arts Scholarship the Spring semester of my Freshman year based on my sculpture experience and portfolio. As a CaPA Scholar I developed myself as a maker and as an artist, using my scholarship funding to: experiment in foam sculpting, pursue fine crafting in wood and resin, explore long‐exposure photography; create the five Commons Emblem sculptures debuting on campus this year; travel to Germany and Italy as part of the Winter interim trip ‘Journey to Rome’ my Junior year to be exposed to a variety of painting and sculptural styles; visit museums in various U.S. cities. It also equipped me to plan out and execute the programming for Get Creative Week. A more in‐depth description of the CaPA program itself can be found here.
Campus Service Activity /Award 2:
2019 Aaron O. Hoff Emerging Leader Award|1|During my Junior year, I was nominated for, and awarded, the Aaron O. Hoff Emerging Leader Award. This award “recognizes students who demonstrate considerable leadership potential and have made an impressive transition from exploring to taking the lead towards meaningful change. Decisions about why or how to change were based on an evidence‐ based need. The recipient displays consciousness of self, commitment and values congruence”.
Campus Service Activity /Award 3:
Orientation and Welcome Weeks Leader|3|Prior to the beginnings of the ‘17‐’18, ‘18‐’19, and ‘19‐’20 academic years, I served as an Orientation and Welcome Weeks Leader. Within this role my first two years, I helped groups of roughly 13 incoming first‐year students each transition and acclimate to Lafayette’s campus; my third and final year, I co‐led a group of roughly 18 transfer students of varying class years. This position, though high‐energy at times, carries the weight of ensuring each incoming class feels welcome, secure, and supported going into each academic year.
Campus Service Activity /Award 4:
Ambassadors of Lafayette|3.5|Beginning my Freshman year and continuing through my Senior year, I’ve served as a Lafayette College Ambassador to prospective students/families as well as alumni and guests of Lafayette. The main responsibility of the position is to give tours around campus highlighting the academic opportunities, buildings, and student life at Lafayette. I’ve also been selected to participate on panels during large campus events such as XLC and President’s Day Open House. During my Junior year, I served on the executive committee as Re‐Evaluation Coordinator to revamp the tour guide re‐evaluation system. And most recently, I was selected to help create digital content for prospective students accepted to Lafayette who are unable to visit due to the current Coronavirus outbreak.
Campus Service Activity /Award 5:
Hillel Society|4|I’ve been a member of Lafayette’s Hillel since my Freshman year and on the General Board since my Sophomore year. Serving in an executive role as Vice President of Religion and Culture (VPRC) for my Sophomore spring and Junior fall semesters, I ensured that: religious services would run weekly; major Jewish holidays like Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc. were properly planned and run; that other clubs/organizations felt welcome at our events. Making events interfaith and educational was a priority of mine. I tried my best to further introduce the campus to the rich history and culture of the Jewish people, while also inviting other groups to introduce their own rich history and culture for the Jewish students on campus. Since taking on the role of VPRC until now, I would frequently write the D’var Torah for the week (like a sermon on that week’s Torah portion) to be shared during our Friday night services. All of my D’var Torahs can be found here.
Campus Service Activity /Award 6:
Co‐founder and Executive Board member of the Mental Health Coalition|3.5|Following a string of campus tragedies my Freshman year, I helped co‐found the Mental Health Coalition. Our aim was to raise awareness about the stigmas surrounding mental health, discuss how to handle one’s own mental health, and raise money for mental health advocacy groups. Through our Mental Miles 5K’s, the Henna Project, and discussion‐based programming, we’ve accomplished these goals and raised over $3000 dollars for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. We’ve also hosted round‐table discussions with students and faculty to further open up the dialogue of what mental health looks like in and out of the classroom for both parties. Links to the Mental Miles 5Ks: Link to the Henna Project:
Campus Service Activity /Award 7:
WJRH|1|For the Spring semester of freshman year and Fall semester of sophomore year, I co‐hosted a radio show through WJRH with two of my friends! The three of us were about as far from radio host prodigies as we could get, but it was a fun way to try something new and get outside of our comfort zones. If you’d like to be mildly entertained and laugh at our pretty terrible hosting, here’s the link to the
show:
Community Service 1:
Mental Miles 5K|3|For three consecutive years, I’ve helped plan, organize, setup, and execute the Mental Miles 5K as part of the Mental Health Coalition’s volunteer and fundraising efforts. Alongside all
of our runners and volunteers, we raised over $3000 dollars to be donated to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. A write‐up and pictures can be found here:
Community Service 2:
Hillel‐based fundraisers|4|Within Hillel, we’ve organized a very wide variety of fundraising and food‐based community service efforts. Monthly bagel brunches offer an opportunity for the student body to enter the Hillel House, partake in a bagel spread that the board puts together (with lox expertly rolled by ours truly!), and raise money for the charity that we’ve chosen for that month. Esther’s Helpers is an event taking place around the Jewish holiday of Purim, where the board raised money and created baskets of feminine hygiene products to all be donated to 3rd Street Alliance. Challah for Hunger is an event where Hillel members come together in the Hillel House, bake challah, and donate it to Easton‐area food pantries or shelters like Safe Harbor.
Athletic Activity /Award 1:
Swing Dance|3.5|Since my Freshman year I’ve been learning how to swing dance! Beginning with the basics, we’ve progressed into advanced‐level swing dance focusing on characterization, performance, and ‘big moves’. I’ve also begun learning the art of dance choreography, helping to choreograph past performances, personally choreographing our performance for the Spring ‘19 performance to ‘Scrape the Sky’ by Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vj4KjAHEooRS67XREXQusziDg9EyPK4D/view?usp=sharing), and choreographing the upcoming Spring ‘20 performance to ‘Movin’’ by Mingo Fishtrap.
Athletic Activity /Award 2:
Club Baseball|1|I played on Lafayette’s club baseball team my Freshman year, mainly as an infielder at 2nd base/shortstop. For Spring Break the same year, I traveled with the team down to Florida for tournament‐style rounds of Spring Training games again.
Special Interest Activity/Award 1:
Commons Emblem Fabrication|3|After creating the Alliance emblem the winter of my Freshman year as a personal room decoration, I was hired by Lafayette to create the remaining four emblems for each commons (Brandywine, Cadmus, Hermione, Victoire). Each emblem measures roughly 2’x2’x0.75’ and individually required upwards of 50 hours to complete, combining for a total of over 250 hours put into the project. All emblems are constructed out of EVA foam and followed the same steps in their creation: visualization, templating, shaping, sanding, priming, painting, and finishing touches. Emblems can be viewed here:
Special Interest Activity/Award 2:
Get Creative Week|1|Being involved in both the Arts and the Sciences on campus, I yearned to create programming reaching out to the whole Lafayette community to show that anybody can embrace their creative side, no matter their background, past experience, or perceived ability. Handling the project from its inception in April 2019 to its finish at the end of October 2019, I brainstormed programming, created the graphic design, acquired funding, managed budgets, arranged speakers, and ran each individual event. Every event intended to target a different side of the creative process to allow for individuals to open themselves up and become more holistic creators. ‘Break the Barrier’ was a panel discussion focused on dissolving the perceived divisions between an individual’s academic focus and their creative passions, mainly those between the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities. ‘Intersections in Art’ was a panel discussion and drawing session; it opened up the thoughts, reasonings, and emotions behind creating art focused on topics such as race and sexuality, as well as what it means to be a viewer of such art. ‘What’s Your Spark?’ was a panel discussion including Chawne Kimber, Head of the Math Department, as well as Ross Gay ‘96, Lafayette alum and author of this year’s community reading, The Book of Delights. It centered around how each individual first got involved in their respective creative outlets, who inspired them, and the difficulties they’ve faced along the way. The end goal of this event was to show those in attendance that their own stories probably aren’t so different than those of the panel members, hopefully encouraging the audience members to start their own creative journeys. The week culminated in the ‘Student Work Showcase’ which was simply an open space where any student could submit and showcase work they wished to debut to the Lafayette community, be it writing, videography, sculpture, photography, etc. In all, this week of events was a true labor of love, and one that I wish to see continued in the future to help foster every Lafayette student’s creative passions. A write‐up of this week of events can be found here:
Special Interest Activity/Award 3:
Religion and Social Justice focus group|~6 weeks|As part of her Doctoral thesis, College Chaplain Alex Hendrickson selected myself and ~13 other students involved in Religious Life on campus to be part of a focus group during Fall 2019 discussing the intersection between Religion and a variety of social justice‐oriented topics. Over the course of six weeks we explored the nuances, perceptions, and overlaps between our own religious beliefs (mainly sects of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) and topics such as race, gender, sexuality, science, and politics. Alex has since earned her Doctorate, and I’m honored to have played a part in Dr. Hendrickson’s work!
Special Interest Activity/Award 4:
WatchDanMakeStuff|3|What began as an avenue to catalogue snippets of my creative progress on Instagram has become a way for others to get a larger glimpse into the work that I do. This Instagram page shows the behind‐the‐scenes pictures and videos that rarely get highlighted when you see a final product in person or online. I try to be realistic in showing what being a maker really looks like, which especially includes showing the failures or areas of improvement along the way. I also show that all it takes to make stuff is a little ingenuity and drive, since the majority of my work is currently based off of low‐cost materials and tools. Link to this page:
Special Interest Activity/Award 5:
Reclaimed Jewelry|1.5|Since the summer of 2018, I’ve been learning the skills and experimenting with the materials needed to start up my own jewelry business. As of Fall 2019, Reclaimed Jewelry has officially opened for business! Taking the lessons from my sculpture work and from the creators I look up to, I began developing my own line of jewelry made primarily from wood, resin, stone, and other materials. The purpose of Reclaimed Jewelry is to source as many materials as possible from places or items with personal meaning, thus reclaiming them for a second life. Examples of jewelry can be found here:
Special Interest Activity/Award 6:
Lightsaber dueling!|4|Since my Freshman year, myself and my roommate, Jared Conner ‘20, have been bringing our own dueling‐grade replica lightsabers out to the Quad at night to learn the basics of swordsmanship while also embracing our very nerdy sides! Exhibit A: and Exhibit B: Jared is experienced in Tae‐Kwon‐Do and various styles of sword fighting while I, as much as I’d like to believe, am very much not. So, these spontaneous dueling sessions on the Quad have simply been a fun way for us to pretend like we’re teaching/learning a new skill while unintentionally becoming semi‐anonymous campus icons. It’s been especially fun having people show interest in it and want to join in. But it’s also stimulated more interest and interaction with the Star Wars universe on campus, which both Jared and I have been incredibly happy to see/hear about!
Special Interest Activity/Award 7:
Spontaneous Chess games|4|Throughout my time at Lafayette, I’ve carried a portable chess board around with me when I go to Skillman Library or Rockwell to get work done. The purpose is to simply set up a game with a sign stating an open invitation for whoever wants to play, then work on my assignments as I wait for someone to come sit down and begin a game. These games have given me the perfect opportunity to get to know others on campus I otherwise wouldn’t run into or interact with on a daily basis. In doing this I’ve made quite a few new friends, played countless games of chess, and spurred an interest in learning/playing chess among my peers and classmates. It’s also made me buy quite a few smoothies for others, because when I work in Rockwell I incentivize others with a free smoothie if they can beat me! Example here:
Special Interest Activity/Award 8:
The Master List|~3 weeks|Following the escalation of COVID‐19 from a novel virus to a global pandemic, I created The Master List as a way of connecting people during their social distancing or self-quarantining. This list, available to anybody hoping to become knowledgeable about the virus.