Theme: Visions of the Future

“Visions of the Future” was the theme of the second TEDxSkidmoreCollege event, taking place Wednesday, December 3rd at 7 p.m. in the Ladd Concert Hall at the Arthur Zankel Music Center.

Three Skidmore faculty members and two students spoke about their distinctive visions of the future. All of the presenters chosen are visionaries who bring Skidmore College academia to a new level, connecting their academic passion to other mediums and places.

Skidmore College
815 North Broadway
Sarataoga Springs, New York, 12866
United States

Gavin Berger

Pre-Medical Student

Gavin Berger is a senior in the class of 2015 at Skidmore College. He is majoring in chemistry with a biochemistry concentration and a theater minor. Gavin is co-president of the National Residence Hall Honorary chapter on campus and is one of the founding members and vice president of the newest improvisational theater ensemble on campus, Awkward Kids Talking. He studied abroad the fall of 2013 at the Moscow Art Theater, which allowed him to be on National Russian Television, learn the fundamentals of the Stanislavsky system on acting, and explore Droznin movement techniques which he later assisted teaching at Skidmore College with lecturer Barbara Opitz. He plans to apply to medical school next summer to pursue a career in emergency medicine and use his theater training to better relate to patients.

Gordon Thompson

Professor of Music

Gordon R. Thompson (Professor and Chair of the Department of Music) is the author of Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out (Oxford) and the author-producer of The Beatles: An Introduction, an experiment in online learning. In addition to having served on and chaired the college’s Committee on Educational Policies and Planning, he has organized the annual Beatlemore Skidmania concerts for the past fourteen years.

Marcella Jewell

Anthill CEO

Marcella is a Fall 2014 graduate of Skidmore College with a BA in Government and minor in Computer Science. As a quintessential liberal arts student, she enjoys reading philosophy equally as much as writing code. Marcella’s founded her most recently company, Anthill, at 19 years old in order to connect millennials with freelance jobs right down the road. Even as a recent grad, she’s had eight different jobs doing everything from lobbying for universal health care, to software engineering, to most recently working at a hedge fund that manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio. Nothing, however, had added fuel to her fire like incubating a start up. Marcella is dedicated to increasing millennial employment, and helping millennials achieve a level of self-actualization only reached by having experienced various people, industries, and work styles.

Reba Howard

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Reba Howard investigates the molecular interactions between brain proteins and drugs that alter behavior and experience, particularly alcohol and anesthetics. She studied chemistry and chemical biology at Pomona College and the University of California, San Francisco, and worked in the interdisciplinary Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin, prior to joining the Skidmore College Chemistry Department and Neuroscience Program as an Assistant Professor in 2012.

Sheldon Solomon

Sheldon Solomon is Professor of Psychology at Skidmore College. His studies of the effects of the uniquely human awareness of death on behavior have been supported by the National Science Foundation and Ernest Becker Foundation, and were featured in the award winning documentary film Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality. He is co-author of In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror; and The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life.