August 12, 2020 | By Shweta Agarwal 

This summer, rising senior Shweta Agarwal (A21) is getting in touch with fellow Johnnies—both alums and current students—to find out how they’re spending their socially distanced summers. This week’s subject: Caleb Dutton (A21).

Rising senior Caleb Dutton (A21) is currently in Staunton, Virginia, enjoying his on-site Hodson internship—a college-funded internship opportunity for Annapolis Johnnies—at the American Shakespeare Center. Originally from Falmouth, Massachusetts, he has been spending his summer experimenting with new steak and chicken recipes, reading War and Peace, and integrating an athletic lifestyle into his everyday routine

Before he arrived at St. John’s, Dutton nurtured a passion for theatre—specifically Shakespeare. The bard’s work has been a huge part of his life; unsurprisingly, it’s what drew him to his position as an archives intern at the Shakespeare Center. In his role, Dutton works with material that includes a variety of productions, education opportunities, and curricula for teaching Shakespeare to an enormous range of people—a “whole mess of history” that Dutton spends his time categorizing. “Sometimes it can be mundane,” he says, “but I also have access to all the recorded performances, which I spend my time watching. Shakespeare is a fantastic writer and the theater has such fantastic actors.”

While Dutton will always remain a Shakespeare fanatic, more recently he has been drawn to the mystery and beauty in Emily Dickinson’s poems, which he describes as “challenging but rewarding.” He has continually enjoyed finding ambiguity and enigma in the work he encounters; this desire to challenge himself with new perspectives and the sincere search for inspiring ways of thinking is evident in what he pursues personally and what he values at St. John’s. It’s also part of why the junior year seminars on Kant’s Critique on Pure Reason are his favorite from his time in undergrad (so far).

“While eight to nine seminars on the same material can make some students feel a little bogged down, I personally felt like we were building up groundwork for understanding how the human mind works and advancing toward the finish line—toward reason,” says Dutton. “The Kant seminars are very rewarding, and all seminar classes gradually get really good at picking apart and connecting ideas and accomplishing something together. We have never before looked this closely into how we think.” For Dutton, there was a particular appeal in being introduced to this new system, and then diving in and figuring out what everything meant in Kant’s terms.

While the academics at the college offer meaningful ways to explore deep-seated questions, the extracurricular connections students can make at St. John’s are often some of the most cherished. Dutton, who spent his childhood in theatre, arrived at St. John’s wanting to immerse himself in more athletic activities, in part to develop relationships with the rest of the college community. “My team, the Spartans, succeeds because we have so many talented players in every sport,” he explains. “But the reason I continue to play is because of the connections I am able to make. [Intramurals] is the primary reason why I know so many people at school and so many people from across the world. I am so grateful for it.”

He describes the college’s athletic program as being open and inviting to all students, including those with little or no athletic experience. Early on, Dutton was on the rowing team—a valuable experience he believes he couldn’t have had anywhere else. “Rowing tends to be a highly competitive sport which can be elite and exclusive in other big schools,” he notes. “At St. John’s, it is inclusive—which is not to say it isn’t intense. It can be very intense, even more so.”

The open, inquisitive mindset Dutton brings to intramural sports also applies to the rest of his college experience, including his favorite Shakespeare plays. He’s always questioning the characters, delving into the complexity of the work. “After discussing the play thoroughly and trying to understand the characters’ motives, at some point you have to ask yourself: ‘What does this signify about the human condition? Why does it matter?’” Dutton says. But even as he returns to favorite plays and characters, his summer in Virginia has reminded him how much he enjoys familiar habits like cooking for himself, learning music, and hiking—this summer he hiked the Old Rag mountain in the Shenandoah Valley, with more to come before the summer ends.

As senior year approaches, Dutton has been diligently reading (and enjoying) War and Peace, and he has returned to Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion”—a piece studied in sophomore year at St. John’s—to prepare for his work-study job as a music assistant this fall. He’s also starting to turn his attention to the long-term future. During a time defined by uncertainty, Dutton doesn’t know what lies ahead. After graduation, he hopes to continue fostering the same sense of community and exploration he’s experienced at St. John’s by securing a scholarship for overseas travel—but post-grad adventure depends entirely on what happens next with the COVID-19 pandemic. That being said—travel or not, he’s planning to spend time in nature cultivating a new relationship with himself, enjoy meditative mornings practicing basketball, and remain captivated by life and the many people within it.