A Candid Conversation with Sally Phelps

A candid conversation with Sally Phelps about her mission on campus, how she spends her free time, and the challenges of working with Olin students.

I met with Sally Phelps in her office in the lower floor of the library. As always, her schedule was tight, but as always, she was happy to meet with me and speak for a full hour– a clearly prioritized hour of uninterrupted conversation, despite the ringing of phones and the dinging of incoming emails.

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A Candid Conversation with Charlie Nolan

Charlie Nolan was the fifth employee of Olin College and its founding Dean of Admission. Though he took three years off to help manage Admissions at Santa Clara University in California (2003-2006), he’s been an Oliner since 1999. He has been working in admissions for more than forty years, and holds a doctorate degree in higher education administration. Although he has worked at Boston College, Washington University, Babson, and other locations, he says his biggest challenge was coming to Olin and starting a school from scratch.

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A Candid Conversation with Vin Manno

The published version, cut to save space, is on top. Scroll down past the break to read the full interview.

One wall of Manno’s spacious (by Olin standards) office is covered by a sprawling bookshelf, his own mechanical engineering library. Artfully arranged on the shelves are memorabilia: models of elephants, for Jumbo, the Tufts mascot, are gifts from former students. And right next to his computer, for easy viewing, a digital picture frame scrolls through photos of his family.

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A Candid Conversation with Jon Adler

A candid conversation with Jon Adler about working in psychotherapy, sharing a passion for theater, and helping college students to make sense of who they are.

Every aspect of Jon’s office is intentional. It’s a welcoming space, carefully arranged not only to be a conversation space, but to help guide the themes of conversation. The Magritte on the wall, of an artist viewing an egg and painting a bird, he chose especially for this job. Other pieces are just for him; the sleeping stone swan was sculpted by his grandfather, and the painting by his grandmother makes him happy.

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A Candid Conversation with Matt Colyer

Matt Colyer has been in startups for his entire working career. That’s five years now; he graduated Olin class of ’07, and immediately started his own business. That particular startup didn’t pan out, but he’s remained a staunch startup developer ever since. He has recently launched a new company, Easel, cofounded with Ben Ogle.

Matt and Ben rolled into Yerba Buena gardens, downtown San Francisco, on bicycles. Over a chess table in the shade, Matt and Ben told me about Easel and what it’s like to live and breathe startups. Matt explained his love for working through ever-changing problems and learning on the fly.

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A Candid Conversation with Ursula Wolz

Ursula Wolz is a visiting professor from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). She began her education in Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology, then transitioned over to a master’s in Computing Education and finally a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University. It is no wonder, then, that her experience and acclaim are in computer science education, interdisciplinary computer science, and “interactive storytelling,” all of which involve combining narrative with computer programming.

She is teaching two sections of Software Design and one of Game design this semester at Olin.

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A Candid Conversation with Aaron Hoffman

Aaron Hoffman’s office is sparse but lived-in, with a few chalk and crayons drawings on the wall, courtesy of his young daughter. The bookshelf is full of mathematics texts in various colors, and the table is laid with a draft of a problem set.

Originally from a New York suburb, Aaron comes to Olin via Swarthmore, Brown, and Boston University. This is his first teaching post, and he’s spent the last year and a half fostering mathematical enthusiasm wherever it presents itself,and his passion is obvious. Though he answered many of my questions with seeming reluctance, Aaron spoke with exclamation marks when I asked him about math.

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A Candid Conversation with Lawrence Neeley

Lawrence Neeley has been teaching at Olin for four years. He grew up in Oakland, California before crossing the country to go to the honors college in Maryland, where he decided to be a mechanical engineer. He earned his master’s and PhD at Stanford, and then came to MIT for postdoctoral mechanical design work.

The MechE side of him was clear stepping into his office; he had various small metal parts lined up neatly on his desk, and elegant, magnetized carabiners hanging from his shelf. His bookshelf was full of rapid prototyping and design theory, and a vinyl cutter in a case rested under his clean desk.

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A Candid Conversation with Brad Minch

On Star Wars, stained glass, and integrated circuit design.

Brad Minch is one of Olin’s best respected professors. The son of two mathematicians, Minch earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and his PhD in Computational Neural Systems from CalTech.

He came back to the Northeast for a teaching position at Cornell, where he won an award for dedicated and inspirational teaching, and a year later, came to teach at Olin.

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