The Great Experiment: Ski slopes and calzones JP McDonald, seen outside the Isenberg School of Management, will graduate from UMass this spring with a master’s degree in accounting. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING Published: 4/30/2021 5:01:50 PM Editor’s note: This story is part of The Great Experiment, a series produced by Professor Kathy Roberts Forde’s Longform Narrative class in the Journalism Department at the UMass Amherst. With mountains of powdery white snow underfoot and a starry night sky overhead, John-Paul McDonald, known to friends as JP, has found a new way to spend Friday nights. JP, a graduate student studying accounting at UMass, had gone skiing only a few times before the pandemic sent everyone indoors last March. This winter it was his regular weekend outing with a small circle of friends, a replacement for pre-pandemic partying.