News & Events Amherst in the News

The Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) named Reece Foy ’18 a member of the Good Works Team®. Foy is the fifth Amherst player to receive the prestigious award, which recognizes students whose charitable involvement and community service contributions stand out among all other student-athletes participating in football. Other winners include Mike Proman '03, Justin Roemer '06, Chris Tamasi ’15 and Paul Whiting ’04.

The Warrior-Scholar Project brought 15 U.S. military veterans to Amherstthis month. From campus, CBS This Morning reported on the weeklong "academic boot camp."

CNBC went to China to follow the first cohort of Schwarzman Scholars, three of whom are Amherst alumni: Carlos Gonzalez Sierra '14 (whom the network profiled), Richard Altieri '15 and Servet Bayimli '16. Altieri gave a speech at the scholars' commencement.

"The eclipse that's happening in 2024 is going to be more significant in this region," Fred Venne, director of Amherst's Basset Planetarium, told New England Public Radio. "We'll be looking in the Amherst, Northampton, southern Vermont, northern Connecticut area at about close to 94, 95 percent coverage of the sun." 

Runner's World interviewed Rhea Parandelis Johnson '95, a former Amherst runner, now a psychiatrist, who competed as part of a relay race in the USA Track & Field Masters Outdoor Championships this summer.

Inside Higher Ed named Professor Marisa Parham a rising star for her work "to lower barriers to both the digital humanities and black studies, which she synthesizes in her work with the 'black digital' — an understanding of digital as a figuration for the African-American experience."

For his role on HBO's Westworld, the actor is nominated for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series.

In The Boston Globe, Professor Emeritus William H. Pritchard '53 reviews a new Henry David Thoreau biography. Pritchard will teach "Great English Writers" at Amherst this fall.

Teller '69 (of magician duo Penn & Teller) explains on This American Life how hedeveloped a routine that, in the words of the show, is among his "most beautiful and puzzling." 

Amherst's Wade Fellow, Anthony Jack '07, was an undergraduate when he brought to the College's attention some hidden costs that burden low-income students. OnBoston Public Radio, President Biddy Martin and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Katie Fretwell '83 explain how Amherst now provides aid for bedding, winter coats, medical bills and other needs. 

"There are some people we can't fix, no matter what lab tests or imaging or drugs we order," writes third-year internal medicine resident Benjamin Gold '11 in a Houston Chronicle article on palliative care. 

A new website offers an interactive way to explore Pioneer Valley history and paleontology, including videos that explain why Amherst's third president, Edward Hitchcock, was convinced dinosaur tracks were made by birds. 

"I'd hate to wake up and wonder what I'm going to do with my day," Jim Pierson '50 told his local newspaper about the prospect of retiring. He heads the longest-running business in East Orange, N.J. 

In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' new River Pavilion (slated to open in 2018) will feature a line from the president's 1963 Amherst speech.

An Epicurious article on "The 100 Best Home Cooks of All Time" includes cookbook authors Ted Lee '93 (with brother Matt) and Jenny Rosenstrach '93, as well as Betty Rosbottom, who is married to Professor Ronald C. Rosbottom.