Final

New London

In 1646 New London, CT was established. It was named after London, England. New London was originally a whaling town that is why there are whales throughout the whole town. It is located just under an hour away from the state capital. And less than 25 from Rode Island. Located on the corner of The Thames River and Long Island sound is one of the biggest cities in the state. Something that makes New London different from other cities is this town has been rebuilt, not always from the ground up, but still rebuilt a lot in the town’s history.

One of the first times New London was built was because it was burned down by a man named Benedict Arnold, who was British, and betrayed the Americans. New London holds one of the few famous forts in countries history, Fort Trumbull. He burned the fort down along with the city. He killed many people and destroyed the city. It took a few years but the rebuilt the town and the fort.

The next big disaster that had a huge impact on the town was the hurricane of 1938. This hurricane is considered the state’s worst natural disaster of the 20^th century. It happened on September 21^st.  Residents of the town didn’t know the hurricane was coming because of inaccurate weather forecasts. It ripped through the town and took out many homes, buildings, and caused a huge number of deaths. What is now known as Ocean Beach was once beach front property. Many homes were there and after the hurricane none remained. There are many pictures of the town before and after, and it is amazing to see what the town did to rebuild itself. Boats, big ferry sized and even bigger ones, crashed up through the docks and were land driven. It was a terrible disaster.

Since this hurricane, two more big ones have occurred; Hurricane Irene and the following year, Hurricane Sandy. Irene arrived in 2011, knocking out power in the town for almost a week. It destroyed houses and other buildings. Not as bad as the 1938 hurricane though. And in 2012 Hurricane Sandy came through. It tore up beaches and some buildings. One of the saddest parts of the town that was destroyed was row of beaches that were all one beach but separated into four. Now a year later, it is still not fixed yet and back to its original form.

The town has now taken a lot more cautions since these two hurricanes to be more prepared for future ones. The town is good when it comes to losing power. And houses near the beaches are boarded up more carefully. There is really nothing the town hasn’t gone through that it come back from. Years later this town will still be running and always rebuild itself after anything that happens to it. 

Two Lyndon State College students are curious about what a public college president’s general schedule looks like so they interviewed Lyndon State College’s president, Joe Bertolino, last Tuesday.

Being a college president is not an easy job, which needs to put lots of effort and energy to manage the entire school and he even plays an important role to push the school into a brighter future. Dr. Joe Bertolino began his career as president of Lyndon State College in July 2012, and this year is his second year at Lyndon State.

“I often compare the second year as students’ sophomore year in college,” Bertolino said when he was sitting on a comfortable couch and being interviewed. “People are used to seeing me. ‘It’s Joe.’”

When the freshness wears off, everything is not as exciting as the first year; Bertolino’s schedule stays the same.

“I don’t control my schedule and I can’t make appointments. Darcie does not allow me to do that,” Bertolino said. Darcie Miles is the executive assistant to the president.

Generally, Bertolino’s daily schedule consists of lots of back-to-back meetings. He said that he is not a morning person, and most of his work starts at 9 a.m. When he got this interview on Tuesday afternoon, he has various meetings scheduled before and after it, and then he has personal training at 6 p.m.

“This is actually a light day because I don’t have anything after 7 o’clock,” Bertolino said cheerfully.

Although Bertolino has lots of meetings every day, if the time permits, Bertolino prefers walking around the campus, attending students’ events and saying hi to different folks, offices, and faculties. If he is off campus, he will attend plenty of events, meetings, and speaking to some groups.

Bertolino is usually invited to community events and fundraisers to talk about the college. Mostly, he would talk about the community, the programs the college offers, and why he thinks that Lyndon is a special place.

Once the job gets stressful, he will stop what he is doing and then take a walk around the campus.

 “This is a good reminder to me why I am doing what I am doing,” Bertolino said. “Students sometimes don’t realize it, but they actually give me lots of encouragement.”

Bertolino mentioned that he held a hundred events at the President’s House, such as student dinners, dinners with athletes, student leaders and other events last year. For instance, every senior who is going to graduate this December and next year will be invited to the President’s House for dinner before the end of the academic year.

Bertolino said, “I would say being a president of a college is a life-style.”

Final Project Topic

For my final project I am going to work alone.
I am going to do a tour of my home town. It will be a mix of video and pictures. I think I will use the site Meograph, the website I was assigned to do a demonstration on earlier this semester, but if the project becomes to complicated I will just make it into a movie.
My sister helped me video tape it while I was driving, so I could take about what the video was showing and I could be safe too. All the other pictures were taken by me.