Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Review
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Midd Moment: Alone Together Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 2 with Sabine Poux ’20

In this special season of Midd Moment, Laurie Patton checks in with members of the Midd community to talk about how they are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Sabine Poux ‘20, Editor in Chief of The Campus, discusses having her senior year cut short and what it's like to remotely manage a vibrant student journalism endeavor.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 28, 2020
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

“I think one of the biggest questions we had when leaving campus is, how you’re going to recreate the sense of community you get on campus, kind of just like charting the day-to-day lives of people that is really intangible in a reporting sense.”
—Sabine Poux ’20, Editor in Chief of The Middlebury Campus

Laurie Patton:

I’m Laurie Patton, president of Middlebury, and professor of religion. In this special series, I’m checking in with our community to see how people are doing so that we might be alone, together.

Today I’m speaking with Sabine Poux, a senior at Middlebury, a poli sci major, and editor in chief of the Campus.

I want to start by, first of all, thanking you for coming on. You’re in the middle of doing online classes. You’re in the middle of figuring out what COVID-19 means in your own life. Thanks for being here. Well, how are you feeling? Personally, how are you?

Sabine Poux:

I think every couple of days, I feel very overwhelmed by what’s happening and I definitely miss my friends a ton. I’m very lucky to have a very great home situation. My younger brother is a first-year at a different college, but he’s also doing the whole online classes thing, so it kind of feels like high school, doing our homework in the kitchen late into the night. So that’s kind of reassuring in a way. I definitely mourn the end of my senior year at Middlebury, but I recognize the relative weight of what’s happened in my life. It has been pretty okay. I feel very fortunate in that regard.

Laurie Patton:

Yeah. Well, because you are a senior, you’ve lost the final quarter maybe of your senior year. You’ve had to forgo an in-person graduation on the day. We want to make sure that you guys have the in-person celebration that you deserve so that’s going to happen at some point next year. But how have you adjusted to the reality of those losses? What’s that been like for you when you first heard the news and then as you’ve been home re-experiencing high school, but four years later? That’s such a great image.

Sabine Poux:

I think it was definitely most jarring when we were first getting the news and first thinking about leaving school. That’s when all the seniors tried to pack in as much of a senior week as they could. I think since coming home, I don’t really know if I have quite come to terms with not having those things. But I do feel really grateful that in the time that we had, we were able to replicate some activities that gave us a little bit of closure.

Speaker 3:

(singing).

Sabine Poux:

For example, I’m in an a cappella group and we had an impromptu senior concert in Proctor Dining Hall in the middle of the week and each of the seniors sang their quintessential senior solo song.

Speaker 3:

(singing).

Sabine Poux:

Usually we plan that out for months and we have a ceremony after, in which we celebrate the seniors. While we didn’t get to do that part, just having the small concert even, as impromptu as it was, felt like a replica of what we would’ve been able to do with more time.

Those things, in the moment, I think made everything feel like it was coming to an end. Now that I’m here, it’s hard to grapple with these things from a place that I don’t associate with college very much at all. It’s like a pre-college place in a lot of ways.

Laurie Patton:

Are you back in your old room that you haven’t changed in its decorations since high school?

Sabine Poux:

Sure am. I have all my theater posters on the wall. My high school newspaper is pinned up on the wall. I haven’t changed—

Laurie Patton:

If you want a change, you could put some Middlebury swag up there.

Sabine Poux:

I actually have my letter of admission on my board, too. I know I should update it, but I guess that would be a good project to do with all this new downtime.

Laurie Patton:

You mentioned downtime, but I don’t believe you for a minute because you’re busy leading the Campus. Let me just pause to say that you’ve been a really awesome editor in chief to work with. You produced really good journalism this year. What’s it been like to adjust to working at home rather than in a newsroom?

Sabine Poux:

Everyone I’ve talked to has felt a collective loss of motivation. Some students feel very overwhelmed by the prospect of doing this from home and overwhelmed by balancing their online classes with the newspaper and have stepped back a little. But a lot of students see this as a productive channel into which they can focus their energy and feel like they’re doing something that is bigger than themselves. In the midst of sitting at home and feeling very disconnected to Middlebury in certain ways, this is a way to really feel connected and to feel like we’re doing something that is creative and productive for the community.

In terms of physically motivating ourselves to work from home, that can definitely be a challenge to not have our staff in the newsroom. We so value that face-to-face connection. But luckily it’s a very competent team. We work on Google documents, so there’s a lot of back and forth that happens. I think a lot of the in-person work we did was to construct the physical layout of the paper. We do a lot of editing remotely anyway. Now that we’re not doing the physical PDF version of the paper, we can repurpose some of that time that we would have otherwise been using to do that.

Laurie Patton:

Do you still have a daily routine as a newspaper and do you also have a daily routine as a student?

Sabine Poux:

I have had trouble getting up in the morning. My room is really cozy and it feels like a cave. I definitely start my day later than I would be starting it at Midd, which is a bit challenging. But once I’m up, I try to sit down at my kitchen table, I make breakfast, and I just answer a bunch of emails and do as much Campus as I can before doing a little prep for my classes.

We’re still rolling out coverage on Thursdays, so we’re trying to finish editing most pieces on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That process has been slightly delayed because of just people getting back into things, but we’re trying to still keep the week pretty front-loaded.

On the weekends, I’ve been trying to decompress. Also, I’ve been applying to jobs because all these jobs that I’ve been applying to have decided that they no longer want to hire people, so I’ve had to ramp up my job application efforts. That’s what my weekends look like.

But day to day, it’s actually been more challenging than I would have expected to balance online classes and other work. I think even if there’s not technically more work for the online classes, the activation energy that we need to put in to get to a place where we feel like we can do our best work, I just feel it’s just a little bit harder. Everything takes slightly longer. Even though I’m not walking to class, I’m walking from my bedroom to my kitchen, and then to the bathroom and back to the kitchen; the commute is so much shorter, but still somehow there’s this superfluous time on the edges of everything that adds up. There’s definitely these fringy times when I’m just confused about where the day has gone.

Laurie Patton:

You’re also doing this wonderful thing, which is the remote storytelling project. I thought it was really a wonderful idea for you to pursue this. Tell us a little more about it.

Sabine Poux:

I think one of the biggest questions we had when leaving campus is, how you’re going to recreate the sense of community you get on campus, kind of just like charting the day-to-day lives of people that is really intangible in a reporting sense.

We knew we wanted to do some kind of vignette-style series. Our digital director, Emilia Pollard, had brought over a couple ideas of what that would actually look like. I think at first she had recommended choosing six or so students who were going to be correspondents and report every week or every other week. Then we kind of thought it’d be cool to just see how many submissions we could get by opening it up to as many people as possible, and realizing that there are so many different stakeholders in the Middlebury community. We’ve gotten a ton of responses from alumni, which is super cool. The thing I love about that is just the geographical radius of the people that we’re able to reach out to has really expanded.

Laurie Patton:

Do you have any specific stories that you find particularly moving that you could share?

Sabine Poux:

Our first blast of stories is going to be all seniors. One of the seniors who wrote in talked about actually getting the virus on her way home and how that was an intense experience. A good friend of mine wrote this beautiful essay about how he’s found solace in bird-watching at home in a town that he never thought he’d ever return back to. We received a submission from an emergency room doctor who’s an alumna.

One of the questions we asked was what are you most afraid of at this time? Another one we asked is what makes you happy at this time? It’s been fun reading the answers to those questions especially and I think kind of realizing that a lot of the fears people have are universal, but that also that there’s some things that people are finding joy in. One of the seniors who contributed wrote she has found a lot of solace in the fact that her neighborhood is the same as it was when she was eight years old. I thought that was really cool. I get the sense people are very good about finding the positives.

Laurie Patton:

I love that. I think it’s very interesting people returning to landscapes of their childhood, for many, not all, students, and that itself being a very interesting moment to reconnect with something that you were in the midst of leaving. I’d also love to hear you talk as a journalist about the role that the Campus plays in our community and what’s important to report on right now.

Sabine Poux:

I feel like we’re very lucky because over the last couple of years, the amazing people I’ve worked under at the Campus have gotten the paper to a place where there’s a lot of trust from all corners of the College that I don’t know if it has always existed. I think it ebbs and flows. But right now I feel like the position we’re in allows us to do this remote work, and people want to contribute, and people are excited about the work we’re doing.

I think at different times since the announcement and since this COVID stuff has been happening, there are different points in which I see our role very differently. I think immediately following the announcement and in those first days and still now in a lot of ways, it feels like, first and foremost, we are getting information out to people, getting them the information that they need ASAP, and serving that information-providing role.

I think sometimes I see our role as a way to bring people together. We got a ton of op-eds about grading and heard people’s thoughts about the grading policies and tried to write a story synthesizing a lot of those arguments.

Then I also have been recently thinking about our role retroactively, thinking about what it’s going to be like to go through the archives in 10 years and wonder what was Middlebury College like when this was happening, because I’m obsessed with Special Collections. I could spend hours looking through old Campus articles and all the different publications they have on file there. But they have been posting a couple of stories that we posted back in 1918. Separately, I have a friend who’s looking into, for his first story that he’s writing, about how apparently in 1802, the College had one graduate and he couldn’t go to the ceremony because he was sick.

Going back into the archives has been so fun and it makes me think about when our paper becomes the archived paper. I think that’s very much on the forefront of our minds, and we write stories providing the context that feels very baseline for people. I have to remind myself that when people are reading these stories, which they hopefully will be years from now, that they’re going to need this context and that there are all sorts of pieces of the puzzle that when they put together, I hope they can get a full sense of what Middlebury was like during this thing. That’s also the impetus for this off-campus project is I think it’d be ingenuine to not try to touch upon some of the intangible ways people are feeling at this time.

Laurie Patton:

I completely identify with you as an archivist. I had a moment where I began to think, well, who was president in 1918? I found out it was John Martin Thomas. He was a very interesting kindred spirit because he was the first to live at 3 South as a president. He also had a degree in religious studies. He wrote. So it’s been a very interesting period of research for me as I think about the different moments of the College and moments of crisis in the College as well. I’m wondering, do you think that there will be a COVID legacy that will change the way you publish your paper?

Sabine Poux:

That’s an interesting question. I think at the beginning of this year, we had been toying around with the idea of shifting to online only. I personally love the print copy of the paper and I want to maintain the print version as long as we can. But I do think that there are some parts of doing online only or mostly online coverage that are really great that we’re seeing right now. I think that’s, like I said before, being able to whittle down the time we’re spending in design, which unfortunately often falls on some of our most competent editors, who should be editing stories, end up having to do a lot of nitty gritty layout work.

Also, just the speed at which we can upload online stories is really cool. When things are unfurling at rapid pace, the print version of the paper doesn’t always feel like the most relevant way to convey that information. But I think there are a lot of changes we’re going to probably see to our online coverage this semester. Our online team is really robust and has been working to improve our website and do cool things like get us on Apple News and figure out how to address some bugs on the site and get a better comment plug-in. I think those kinds of things, now that we’re only online, it’s going to become abundantly clear what our website could be at its best.

Laurie Patton:

I just want to say thank you for everything that you’re doing. You definitely didn’t sign up to be this kind of editor in this historical moment, but here you are, pivoting in all the ways that we need to. I want to thank you for helping the Campus be the place that keeps our community together in as many ways as it has and for all the storytelling that you’ve been doing and all the great journalism that you’ve done.

I will see you at your graduation.

Sabine Poux:

Yes. I’m so excited. Thank you so much. I know you guys have been… up to your eyeballs. It’s been really great.

Laurie Patton:

Okay. Take good care.

 

You can subscribe to Midd Moment: Alone Together at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify. We encourage you to do so today!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

More Than a Game

In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
Photograph by Devin Yalkin
October 21, 2022

Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

Catching up with a young filmmaker who is rapidly making a name for himself at Vice.

By Mara Dolan
Film stills by Munya Munyati
September 16, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Dispatches

A Night Out

For one evening in December, Atwater dining hall hosted a student-dining experience unlike any other.

By Caroline Crawford
Photographs by Paul Dahm
January 20, 2023

Finding His Way

What happens when your identity is stolen—not by another person but by your own body?

By Sara Thurber Marshall
December 15, 2022

A Natural Selection

For more than a quarter century, Stephen Trombulak— now an emeritus professor of biology and environmental studies—guided students in avian research on a parcel of College land hard by Otter Creek. This preserved area now bears his name.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photography by Paul Dahm
November 18, 2022

The Utterly Fascinating Life of Howie McCausland

He saves lives. He brought the Internet to Middlebury. He has a degree in astrophysics. And he loves to fish. Yes, this is a true story.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John S. Dykes
September 16, 2022

It’s a New Day at the Museum of Art

Reimagining what an art museum can and should be.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Art courtesy of the Middlebury College Museum of Art
June 30, 2022

First Aid

Their projects span the globe—from Kenya to Haiti to the United States. As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, a cohort of students gathered to discuss what having a social impact really means.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
June 28, 2022

The Case of the Purloined Onions

Onions have been disappearing from Middlebury's garden. Now, a team of undergraduate sleuths are honing in on a lineup of suspects.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by Naomi Ann Clarke
June 21, 2022

Sonic Art

What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Josiah Bania
April 15, 2022

Poetry, In Exile

After fleeing civil unrest in her native Venezuela, a Middlebury Institute graduate student turned to poetry to help make sense of it all.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Anonymous
January 21, 2022
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
January 20, 2023

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Success Story

A book detailing the history of U.S. Olympic women cross-country skiers brings to light the decades of grit and determination it took to finally bring home a gold medal.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photos courtesy U.S. Ski and Snowboard
January 20, 2023

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2023 Middlebury College Publications.