Olivia DrakeApril 22, 20131min
Wesleyan's WESlam team placed 13th out of 59 college teams from around the country in the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, held April 3-6 at Barnard College in New York City. Five students, Evan Okun '13, Lily Myers '15 , Zachary Goldberg '13, Cherkira Lashely '15 and Markeisha Hill '16 competed on the team and Emily Weitzman '14 coached. Lily Myers won the award for best love poem. "'Most moving' was the response Wesleyan got from community ," Okun said. "We were complemented for our creative manner in which we resisted the typical 'slam-poem-formula' that is often over dramatic and…

Olivia DrakeApril 1, 20132min
Ellen Alexander '14, Professor Joop Varekamp and graduate student Lauren Camfield recently returned from Argentina where they studied the eruptive products of the Copahue volcano March 7-March 19. Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of environmental studies, has studied the volcano since 1997. It erupted in 2000 and again in December 2012. "Many Wesleyan students have done their senior theses and grad theses on Copahue. It's exciting stuff for us volcanology types," Varekamp said. Camfield sampled the products of the most recent eruption of Copahue, which included ash, pumice and volcanic bombs. She will analyze her samples…

Brian KattenOctober 22, 20122min
Matt Long '14 a tight end on Wesleyan's Football Team, hopes to make a new friend in about a year. Why would a 6-foot 5-inch, 240 pound scholar-athlete at a prestigious college like Wesleyan who was named an academic all-NESCAC choice in 2011 need to wait 12 months to make a new acquaintance? One very special reason. This past spring, Long, of Williston, Vt., was coaxed by a schoolmate to enlist in a bone marrow donor program during a drive on campus. It was sponsored by DKMS, the world's largest bone marrow donor program. Thus, Matt was on a donor matching…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20124min
Q&As with outstanding students is an occasional feature of The Wesleyan Connection. This issue we speak with Catherine MacLean from the Class of 2014. Q: Catherine, what are you majoring in at Wesleyan, and why? A: I am a biology and science and society double major. I have been fascinated by biology for quite a long time, so I was pretty sure I wanted to study it when I came to Wesleyan. I am very interested in the way that such basic low-level structures can combine synergistically to give rise to an organism and the complexity of life. The combination…

Benjamin TraversSeptember 26, 20121min
Matt Donahue '14 is a double major in psychology and neuroscience and behavior, works in several departments on campus, and is the chapter president of Brighter Dawns, a student run non-profit that aims to improve health conditions in the slums of Bangladesh. Learn more about Donahue in the video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-xjE8Zsv2U[/youtube]

Olivia DrakeJuly 31, 20123min
Q&As with outstanding students is an occasional feature of The Wesleyan Connection. This issue we speak with Andrew Ribner from the Class of 2014. Q: Andrew, you're a rising junior, working toward a university major in educational psychology and learning theory and biology. Please explain what a university major is and why you chose this degree path. A: A university major is essentially an interdisciplinary create-your-own major. It's an option that isn't very highly publicized, and is completely unique to each student who does it. It's an intense application process that involves writing a formal proposal and four-year class schedule,…

Olivia DrakeJuly 9, 20122min
The MINDS Foundation, an organization started by Raghu Appasani ’12, was recently featured in the June 6 Huffington Post. The MINDS Foundation is working to eradicate mental illness stigmas and provide mental healthcare services to patients in rural villages in India. According to the article, the conditions of many mental health facilities are inexcusable; people lack basic human dignity, and necessities such as clothes, clean water, and food; they are often locked away in prison-like rooms; and lack even the most basic legal protections. Since 2012, the MINDS Foundation has educated nearly 1,000 individuals, and is currently treating 36 patients suffering…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20123min
A Wesleyan sophomore is the recipient of a prestigious award from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Andras Sagi '14, a chemistry and molecular biology double major, is one of 282 college students from around the country who received a Goldwater Scholarship. Goldwater Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,123 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The $15,000 scholarship will be applied to Sagi's tuition, fees, books, and room and board over two years. At Wesleyan, Sagi works with…

Olivia DrakeDecember 19, 20113min
Q&As with outstanding students is an occasional feature of The Wesleyan Connection. This issue we speak with Lief Fredrichs from the Class of 2014. Q: Lief, where are you from, and why did you choose Wesleyan? A: I am from Exeter, NH. I chose Wesleyan because, when I visited, the students (actually tour-guides) seemed the most real to me. I liked Wes because of its reputation for being a small and prestigious school. I applied and got accepted off the waiting list in July. I was planning to go to Bard College, but I decided that I couldn't pass up…