Olivia DrakeMay 1, 200713min
Earth and environmental studies major Charlie Congleton '07 is Wesleyan's leading goaltender. Posted 05/01/07 Q: Charlie, you have been the starting goaltender for the very successful men's lacrosse team at Wesleyan for 2 1/2 years. When did you take an interest in goaltending?A: I started playing lacrosse in 4th grade, In 7th grade, no one wanted to play goalie so I volunteered at the beginning of the season and started standing in the net. They started chucking tennis balls at me and I stopped them. So then I stood in there with real balls and stopped those. Pretty soon my…

Olivia DrakeMay 1, 20077min
731 students received bachelor of arts degrees May 27 at Wesleyan. (Photo by Olivia Drake) Posted 05/27/.07 Don’t be afraid of risk, and don’t shy away from service to others. These were among the thoughts offered during Wesleyan University’s 175th commencement ceremony by Jim Lehrer, anchor of PBS’ The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and noted novelist. Lehrer delivered the commencement address before more than 10,000 people at Wesleyan’s campus in Middletown, Conn. During the ceremony, the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching was awarded to Joyce P. Jacobsen, Andrews Professor of Economics; Richard Slotkin, Olin Professor of American Studies…

Olivia DrakeMay 1, 20078min
Michele Chun ’07, who works in Olin Library's preservation services, is one of 44 seniors who receive a bookplate label inside a library book, honoring their service to the library. Posted 05/01/07 In 2004, Michele Chun ’07 became acquainted with the work of author Joy Williams. While studying abroad in Scotland that year, she read Williams’s The Honored Guest, and it’s remained one of her all-time favorite reads. Chun, who worked as a student assistant in Olin Library for four years, will graduate this May, but her love for The Honored Guest will be remembered at Wesleyan long beyond Commencement.…

Olivia DrakeApril 28, 20073min
BIOPHYSICS IN BALTIMORE: Thirteen Wesleyan students, faculty and alumni attended 2007 Biophysical Society 51st Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Md. March 3-7. Pictured from left, are Ishita Mukerji, associate professor and chair of the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department; Maiko Kondo '07; and Wendy Barber-Armstrong, graduate student. Kondo stands by her poster titled "Mechanism of Fiber Formation: Amyloid Beta Peptide (10-35)" The poster was co-authored by Barber-Armstrong and Mukerji. Kondo says she was able to speak to many scientists at the meeting who study similar topics. Carlo Balane '06 and Jason Wolfe, professor of biology, check out the exhibitions at the…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
Gregory Dubinsky ’07 will work with experts in Washington DC after graduation. He was named a Carnegie Junior Fellow, the first Wesleyan has had since 1991. Posted 04/17/07 Gregory Dubinsky ’07 will have the opportunity to work with two Russian scholars as a newly-accepted Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank based in Washington, DC that focuses on promoting cooperation between nations. Dubinsky, a government and intellectual history double major, is one of only seven students in the country to receive this honor. Each year the Carnegie Endowment offers the one-year fellowships to seniors and individuals…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20074min
Jeremy Stuart '08, top, is one of 27 winter athletes named an all-academic by the New England Small Athletic Conference.  (Photos by Brian Katten) Posted 04/17/07 The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) announced its 2006-07 Winter All-Academic selections. Twenty-seven Wesleyan student-athletes received the honor. To be honored, a student-athlete must have reached junior academic standing and be a varsity letter-winner with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.35. A transfer student must have completed one year of study at the institution."At Wesleyan, athletics is to be an integral part of the overall educational enterprise," says Wesleyan…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20079min
Shari Swanson '79, library assistant and cataloger, started working at Olin Library in 1981. She plans to retire this summer.   Posted 04/17/07 Shari Swanson may be considered a bit “bibliophilic.” During the day, Swanson works as Olin Library’s assistant and cataloger, sorting an array of reading material. And during the evening, she may retire to her personal library – stocked with more than 5,000 volumes. “I am a bibliophile of the first order,” Swanson says. “I love to read, admire and collect books, old and new. A s a matter of fact, with me, it's even close to an…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
John Seamon, professor and chair of the Psychology Department, led a study titled the study, "Do you remember proposing marriage to the Pepsi Machine? False recollections from a campus walk," which appeared in a recent issue of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Posted 04/17/07 Did you propose marriage to a Pepsi machine two weeks ago, or did you just imagine it? That's one of the questions John Seamon, professor and chair of the Psychology Department, asked participants in a study designed to determine if memories, and, in particular, bizarre false memories, could be implanted. "We were interested in seeing if merely…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20075min
After exams finish up, Kudakwashe Ngogodo '08 hopes to provide safe drinking water in a rural community in Zimbabwe. Jessica French Smith '09 wants to spend her summer building a community center for the troubled youth of Nagarote, Nicaragua. With support from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace Program, Smith, Ngogodo and other students from 65 colleges and universities will receive funding to undertake their proposed projects. Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in February, established the new program with a donation of one million dollars so that each of the projects will…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
Goaltender Mike Palladino '09 was named to the 2007 New England NESCAC All-Conference first-team. (Photo by Richard Orr) Posted 04/17/07 Seven Wesleyan athletes and one coach were named to the 2007 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) All-Conference Teams. Men’s hockey team members Will Bennett '07 and Mike Palladino '09 were first-team choices. Bennett, pictured at right, was the hockey team’s top scorer, and Palladino was the starting goaltender for the hockey Cardinals. Bennett, the 2004 NESCAC Rookie of the Year, is tied for second in the conference in scoring with 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20076min
Holly Nicolas, postal clerk at Wesleyan Station, helps two students send their mail. He was recently featured on Afropop Worldwide Radio.   Posted 04/02/07 It’s 20 minutes after noon and postal clerk Holly Nicolas heads to the Wesleyan Station window. Students begin trickling into a line. Some want to send letters, others wait to pick up packages. “When the students get out of class, we really get hit,” Nicolas says in his Creole-accented English. Holly, pronounced “O-Lee,” is a Haitian native who moved to the United States in 1993. His days begin with sorting incoming mail for the university’s faculty,…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20074min
A study by Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, has established a calculable relationship between increases in CO2 and global surface temperatures. Posted 04/02/07 The connection between CO2 concentrations and increased global temperatures just gained a significant amount of evidence - about 420 million years worth of evidence, to be specific. In a paper published in the March 29 issue of Nature, Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, and two colleagues from Yale University have used nearly 500 data points to create the most comprehensive model of the relationship between CO2 and temperature to…