"One Bullet Away" Author Nathaniel Fick to Share Lessons In Leadership in September 20 Talk

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Nathaniel Fick, whose 2005 book about his service in Afghanistan and Iraq, One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, made the New York Times best-seller list, will visit Washington College on Thursday, September 20, to talk about leadership. Now Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security, Fick will speak at 4:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The talk, titled “One Bullet Away: Leadership Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq,” is free and open to the public.

            One Bullet Away details Fick’s war experiences and reveals to the civilian reader how the Corps goes about selecting and training their elite Recon Marines. From his decision to join the Marines while studying at Dartmouth, through his grueling training, to his time fighting overseas, Fick “does not shrink from the truth –- however personal or unpleasant,” wrote a reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly. The result is an absorbing, thought-provoking memoir that The Military Times named one of the “Best Military Books of the Decade.”

            One Bullet became required reading for officers deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq. It also was the “First-Year Book” for Washington College’s Class of 2016; the students read the book prior to arriving on campus, and then met in small groups to discuss it.

            Fick’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Forbes. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, a group that provides education funds for the children of Marines killed in action. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

            A book signing will follow the September 20 talk.

College Ready to Welcome Internationally Diverse Class, Orientation Begins Thursday, August 23

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College is making final preparations to welcome the 405 members of the Class of 2016 to campus, readying dorm rooms and planning a packed schedule of orientation sessions and social events to help the new students feel at home fast.

The new class is one of the most international in recent years, hailing from 23 U.S. states and 16 other nations: China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain and Sweden. 

Among the Americans, about 40 percent are Marylanders, and 45 of that group come from communities on the Eastern Shore. Females make up just over half the class (57 percent), more than a third (35 percent) were members of the National Honor Society in their high schools, and some 27 percent were recruited for sports. The new students will benefit from some $7.5 million in scholarships and financial aid. One more statistic of note: about 8 percent of the Class are Washington College legacies, meaning at least one family member is an alumnus.  

Although some athletes and international students will arrive a few days earlier, the majority of the freshmen will move into their campus residence halls on Thursday morning, August 23. That afternoon, while the students will meet with their Peer Mentors (members of the sophomore, junior and senior classes whose primary role is to help the first-years adjust to college life), their parents will hear advice from Provost Emily Chamlee-Wright and Dean of Students Mela Dutka about how to let go and cheer their student on from a healthy distance. Everyone reconvenes for a welcome program and reception with Washington College’s first couple, President Mitchell B. Reiss and his wife, Elisabeth, then the parents drive away and freshman year begins in earnest.

Over the following few days, the first-years will take part in numerous programs and meetings aimed at easing the transition from high school to college. Among other planned activities, they will learn about and sign the all-important Honor Code, take a walking tour of Chestertown, finalize their class schedules, party to the music of the band Hot Tub Limo, discuss the first-year read (Nathaniel Fick’s memoir One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer), and be amazed and entertained by the psychic feats of Banachek the Mentalist.. 

Click here for more details on the orientation schedule. 

Upperclassmen are scheduled to return by Sunday, August 26, and will join the new students that evening, along with faculty and staff families, for the traditional “All-Campus Picnic.”  Classes begin Monday morning.

Poet and Author Nick Flynn to Read For Sophie Kerr Weekend on Friday, March 23

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Poet and author Nick Flynn will give a free reading on Friday, March 23 at 4 p.m. in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts as part of Sophie Kerr Weekend at Washington College. The event is free and open to the public.

Flynn will read excerpts from his memoir The Ticking is the Bomb (Norton, 2010) a book defined by a review in the Los Angeles Times as “a disquieting masterpiece” and by Kirkus Reviews as “a striking collection of memories that will mystify, enlighten, trouble, and amaze.” In this deeply personal narrative, Flynn recalls his unstable childhood and the scars that stay with him as he prepares to become a father in a post-9/11 world. With the horrors of Abu Ghraib broadcasting on the news and his own demons of addiction plaguing him, Flynn explores the place of torture, suffering, and redemption in today’s world.

The Ticking is the Bomb was this year’s pick for First-Year Book at Washington College; the members of the class of 2015 were encouraged to read it prior to their arrival on campus. The First-Year Book program gives new students a common experience over the summer and introduces them to Washington College’s tradition of bringing great writers to campus.

Jehanne Dubrow, the director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House and a professor of creative writing, believes Flynn’s visit will be beneficial for burgeoning writers on campus. “Nick Flynn is a great role model not only for aspiring poets, but also for aspiring memoirists and playwrights. It’s the rare writer who manages to establish himself in so many different genres, while still maintaining a voice that is distinctly and cohesively his,” Dubrow says.

Flynn’s first book, PEN Award winner Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (Norton, 2004), has been made into a film by Focus Features. Starring Robert De Niro, Paul Dano, and Julianne Moore, Being Flynn opened in limited release on March 2.

Flynn is also the author of three poetry collections, Some Ether (Graywolf, 2000), Blind Huber (Graywolf 2002), and The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands (Graywolf, 2011). His poems, essays, and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, the Paris Review, The New York Times Book Review, and on the public radio program This American Life. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, the Amy Lowell Trust, and the Fine Arts Work Center.

The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the Rose O’Neill Literary House, the Department of English, and the Dean of the College. A book signing will follow in the Underwood Lobby of the Gibson Center, which is located on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. For more information: http://www.washcoll.edu.