Senior Spotlight: Anjalee Rutah
As the fall semester winds down, many seniors are reminiscing about their time at Colby. After all, for seniors, this is their last autumn here, the last time they’ll see the leaves in the Arboretum change, their last Halloween weekend.
Following in the steps of her peers, Anjalee Rutah `21 sat down with The Colby Echo to talk about her final year, her favorite memories, and so much more.
“I’m pretty excited [about senior year,]” Rutah said. “I feel very lucky to be here right now given COVID-19 and everything else that’s going on in the world.”
Rutah has experienced the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic more than most. When the pandemic hit and most countries closed their borders, she was studying abroad in Morocco. The sudden travel bans left her stranded in Casablanca with the rest of the students on her program.
“To be honest, we were just chilling,” Rutah said. “Our program was pretty planned out. They originally planned to take us to this really rural town in Morocco where we would have no service when all of this was going down and things were ramping up with [COVID-19]. We all got a little nervous and refused, but we still ended up getting stuck. We got back eventually thanks to one of the students in my program.”
Her study abroad experience wasn’t all bad, however. An Environmental Science major with a concentration in Public Health and an Anthropology minor, Rutah chose a program that focused on environmental justice. The program originally planned to stay in Vietnam for a month, then Morocco, then Peru — but, obviously, they never made it to South America.
“In Vietnam I really enjoyed the freedom I had, especially in Ho Chi Minh City,” Rutah said. “They have this app called Grab, which is basically like Uber. You can grab a motor bike, and in Vietnam there are literally no traffic regulations so it’s basically like going on a roller coaster.”
Beyond motor-bike joyrides, however, Rutah says she really enjoyed learning about environmental justice abroad. While she’s not quite sure where this path will take her, Rutah claims she’s just enjoying the ride.
“It took me a little bit of time to find my major, mostly because I came in thinking I had this set plan for what I wanted to do,” Rutah said. I thought I wanted to be a Biology major, but then I realized that was not for me. I’m not sure if environmental science is my calling, either, but I think it’s so much more interdisciplinary. It’s a nice blend of different subjects.”
Currently, Rutah’s favorite class is in the Anthropology department — “Space, Place, and Belonging” taught by Professor Winifred Tate.
“I love it,” Rutah said. “I think it really builds off of this class I had last fall with Professor Bhimull on anthropology, history and memory. I really like the idea of connecting anthropology and history, the importance of remembering the past. I think Tate is doing a great job of incorporating these themes into the discourse of our daily lives, things like gentrification and climate change.”
When not in class or studying, Rutah enjoys reading and catching up on her favorite TV shows. She is currently reading The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara and is watching The Haunting of Bly Manor. A recently-converted pescatarian, she also enjoys cooking in her kitchen in the downtown dorms, where she lives with her five roommates.
“I’ve become a pescatarian, which is hard but not as hard as I thought it would be,” Rutah said. “It’s weird because at home I don’t cook a ton. Here, I have to think about everything I cook. It’s important to me to know what’s going into my body.”
A Baltimore native and self-described homebody, Rutah says the transition to Colby — besides having to cook her own food, of course — wasn’t particularly difficult for her.
“Being in Maine works for me,” Rutah said. “Being in an isolated place like it works for me. I have enjoyed the quiet more than I would have thought.”
Rutah wasn’t always this comfortable at Colby, however. Reflecting on her first year here, she remembered feeling out of place and unsure of herself. She offered a few words as advice to first years and anyone struggling to find their place here in Maine.
“Just take the time to know who you’re becoming,” Rutah said. “Don’t rush into making friends or think that you have to have friends the first month of school or semester or year. Just take time to figure out who you’re becoming in this space because you might not want to be the same person you are at home.”
~ Sarah Warner `21
