Ten years ago some good friends suggested I write about Bill De La Rosa, who was a first-year Bowdoin student at the time. They said he’d probably be president of United States some day. I interviewed Bill, and they were absolutely right about this amazing young man.
As a teenager, Bill had to take care of his siblings because his mother was separated from the family by immigration officials in 2009 and had to return to Mexico. After graduating from Bowdoin College, Bill went on to earn his doctorate at Oxford, and he’s now at Yale Law School. He’s also won humanitarian awards and been featured in a documentary. He plans to enter the political arena in the future. (Google his name.)
History repeats itself. A good friend recently suggested I write about Zak Asplin, a current first-year student at Bowdoin. She said that Zak had turned down several top schools to come to Bowdoin and would probably be the prime minister of Britain some day. I took up her suggestion, and she was right about Zak. What a delight to learn about his path to Bowdoin.
Zak excelled at the Bedford Modern School in Bedford, England, where, it seemed, he won every possible award there was to win: “In school life I served in roles as a Senior Prefect, Student Head of Politics in the PPE department, Head of House (House Captain and Senior House Monitor) and student head of Navy CCF Section. Captain of BMS Debate Team, President of Sofia Society (ethical discussion society), Fawcett Society, Politics Debate Society, MUN and lead tenor in the school Vocal Quartet, Specialist Chamber Choir and Whole School Choir.”
Zak was a champion debater, so I asked him what it took to be a good debater. “You have to project absolute confidence,” he explained, “and you have to be able to blag it.” (The word blag, I learned, is to convince someone of something.)
While I was impressed by Zak’s extraordinary achievements in school, I was even more taken by other things he shared. His father left the family before Zak’s last year in school, so he earned money working 18 hours a week in various jobs to pay 60% of the costs. Another example: One of the students at his school was deaf, so Zak learned British Sign Language in order to communicate with him.
I asked Zak why he chose Bowdoin over top universities in Great Britain and the United States, and he cited the small classes taught by professors, not graduate students; the tight-knit community; access to the outdoors; and the focus on the common good.
Zak has hit the ground running at Bowdoin, to put it mildly. He loves his courses in political theory and economics, not surprising given his passion for observing political systems, especially in England and in the United States. He’s on the debate team, although he notes that debating in America is different from debating in England. “Here they don’t give you extra points for style, whereas they do in England.” He’s joined the Peucinian Society, a philosophical group which meets once week to discuss and debate various topics. He writes for the Bowdoin Review, the literary magazine. He plans to run for a position on the student government next semester and possibly audition for one of the a cappella groups.
Zak is an independent thinker, not afraid to speak his mind. And he bills himself as a conservative, which puts him in the political minority at Bowdoin. He recently wrote an opinion piece for the Bowdoin Review entitled, “The Most Expensive Home Care.” The piece opens as follows: “The U.S. electorate has some serious daddy issues. Scratch that. Granddaddy issues. The age of our representatives isn’t just a one-off happening, but a gradual fossilization over the last century which erodes the hallmarks of robust representation of the American people.” At the end of the piece Zak advocates for “clear, constitutionally amended term limits.” In my view, he’s right on the mark.
Zak plans to go into investment banking after Bowdoin because he knows you need a lot of money to enter politics these days. Eventually, he hopes to become either the secretary of state in the United States or the prime minister in England.
Dream no small dreams, Zak. Go for it. And we’ll enjoy cheering you along on your journey.
David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestion for future “Just a Little Old” columns at dtreadw575@aol.com.
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