From Closed Doors to New Horizons: Transfer Student Jay Clark ’26 on Finding Belonging at Bennington
Learn about transfer student experiences at Bennington College.
When Jay Clark ’26 arrived at Bennington in the late summer of 2023, he was still recovering from something most students never expect to face: the total, immediate closure of their college.
“I completed my first two years of study at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia,” Jay said. “In early June, a few weeks after finishing my sophomore year, the news suddenly broke that UArts would be permanently closing within a week. Students, faculty, and staff were left in limbo as we were forced to reevaluate almost everything.”
Clark channeled that shock into action, writing about his experience for Broad Street Review and searching for a college that wouldn’t just take his credits—but also his work, his future plans, and his voice—seriously. It wasn’t easy.
“Almost any program that looked suitable would force me to repeat a year,” he said. “Middlebury told me I wouldn’t even be doing any literature classes, just general education requirements, and I’d probably have to redo a semester or full year. I kind of said, like, 'I’m not doing that. I’m just not.'”
Then came Bennington.
“I toured Bennington after submitting their expedited application for UArts students. You walk into Admissions and they have your name right there. They say, ‘Oh, you must be Jay.’ I was like, ‘Oh—okay, people know who I actually am.”
When Clark met with admissions, “they basically told me: you're in. You'll get the financial aid you had at UArts—part of the teach-out plan—and you’ll come in as a junior. You’ll only have to do two years. You can take whatever classes you want. You can write the thesis that you wanted to write anyway.”
Clark, who studies Literature with supplemental work in Environmental Science, said he’s always been a writer at heart. “That's what I like to do. It's my favorite thing. But I don't want to make it my career,” he said, citing a need for stability, healthcare, and meaningful work.
Instead, his goal is clear: graduate studies in Library and Information Science, with an emphasis on archiving and ethics. “I love libraries, love archiving, love information science and information ethics. So it’s kind of a no-brainer.”
His work has already laid the foundation. “I did a Field Work Term at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, working in the archives there, which was super fun,” he said. “Then I worked remotely with an archive in Los Angeles—archiving oral histories of LGBTQ elders—which was really, really interesting.”
Clark’s top grad school choice is the University of Toronto—a city he described fondly as “if Boston and Chicago had a baby, and those are my two favorite cities.” He’s also applying to McGill, University of British Columbia, Simmons, and possibly Drexel.
Clark’s academic work at Bennington blends creative nonfiction, horror fiction, and environmental themes. He’s currently developing a thesis focused on the cultural fear of nuclear power, approached through essays and short stories.
“I’m interested in how people are afraid of it and why people are afraid of it. I’m actually a fan of nuclear power—I think it’s the future—but I want to explore that fear,” he explained. “So this is a mix of fiction and essay analysis.”
He credits his advisor, Jenny Boully, and science faculty member Tim Schroeder—who is also on his Plan committee—with helping shape the direction of that project. “Tim has been so encouraging,” he said. “In my first Plan meeting, I said I want to do my thesis about nuclear power and short stories and maybe some essays. He gave me a big thumbs up. ‘Please do it. Do it.’ He’s always just been super excited about what I’m working on, which has always just been so fun.”
Clark has taken a class with Tim nearly every term: “He’s always happy to get into it about whatever specific topic. It’s nice to have faculty members who are experts in their fields but then also have thoughts about the goings-on in the world.”
He is also writing for The Bennington Lens, the College's student-run newspaper. “I haven’t done journalism before,” he said, but added that the challenge has been invigorating.
For Clark, transferring to Bennington wasn’t just about continuing his degree—it was about re-finding a sense of possibility.
“I came here thinking, ‘I’ll get my degree and I’ll get out,’” he said. “And now I have a pretty tight-knit circle of friends, which is lovely. We spend a lot of time together, especially on the weekends.”
He’s also developed a quiet appreciation for Bennington’s setting. “My favorite thing to do at night when I need a break—I walk out to the basketball court or the soccer field and just lay down. Especially when Bingham is doing something with live music. It’s so calming. If you lay on the soccer field, it’s just quiet enough that the music just barely reaches you, and you can just look at the sky.”
That contrast—between city life in Philadelphia and solitude in rural Vermont—has made an impression.
“You could never go somewhere and be alone in Philly,” he said. “But here, I can.”
Clark recalls those early weeks on campus vividly. “I spent a lot of time just on the lawn with a book, just looking at the horizon. Because it had been a while since I had a horizon like that to look at. It’s pretty sweet to be here.”