Mike Mavredakis

Three impactful student organizations—the Mudanza Dance Project, Pyari, and Nailepu Foundation—each received $6,000 New Venture Awards from the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship on April 22. “The 2024 Patricelli Center New Venture Awards were the most competitive in the Center’s 13-year history," said Ahmed Badr, director of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship. "We’re proud to have provided funding for all the applicants, for a total of $44,000. For the first time, all applicants received [at least] a $1,000 grant towards their ventures.” Diana Kimojino ’26 founded the Nailepu Foundation with one goal in mind—to elevate the women and girls…

New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier ’08 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for her work on a series of stories revealing the widespread reach of migrant child labor across the United States. Dreier also previously won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2019 for a ProPublica series that followed Salvadoran immigrants on Long Island whose lives were affected by federal investigations in the MS-13 criminal gang. “This reporting was possible only because of the bravery of migrant children who took huge risks to share their experiences,” Dreier said after receiving the prize on May 6. “There are hundreds of…

Thinking of a bank run—when a mass sector of a bank’s depositors withdraw money in a short period of time—an image springs to mind. Seemingly unending lines of worried civilians encircling a bank teller in the 1930’s clamoring to recoup their entrusted funds as financial panic grips the nation. But modern bank runs look different, happen much faster and are largely unpredictable, according to Jennie Ebihara ’24, who analyzed new problems created by digital bank runs in her senior thesis paper. Ebihara maintains that current models theorizing the growth and speed of bank runs do not really address the problems…

At Wesleyan, there’s celebration in difference. And during his WesFest welcome address, President Michael S. Roth ’78 encouraged students to listen to other perspectives to learn as much as possible so they can benefit from those differences. “You're not going to learn much from other people—faculty or other students—who share all your views or your experiences,” Roth said. “When we talk about the value of diversity, we don't just mean demographics—that's part of it, of course, life experience, that's part of it—we want you to encounter people whose views are different from your own.” At WesFest, admitted, and some committed,…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 urged for the defense of academic freedom and democracy in a piece for TIME: “If we are to strengthen our democracy and the educational institutions that depend on it, we must learn to practice freedom, better. We must learn to be better students. Our future depends on it.” As many colleges across the country have seen protesting on their campuses, Roth appeared on CNN’s “The Assignment with Audie Cornish” to talk about free speech and the campus climate at Wesleyan. “It’s so much better that [Wesleyan students] are worried about Gaza, than just getting an A on…

A Wesleyan University faculty member and alumnus were two of 188 newly announced Guggenheim Fellows, according to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation on April 11. Hari Krishnan, professor of Dance, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Global South Asian studies, received a fellowship for his work in choreography. Tavia Nyong’o ’95, William Lampson Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, American Studies, and African American Studies at Yale University, received one for Theatre Arts & Performance Studies. “It means everything to me. It’s a recognition of the work I do, the breadth of my eclectic choreography for over 30 years,” Krishnan said. “This recognition from Guggenheim is also a recognition…

Student-veteran Desaree Edwards ’25 was one of 60 student leaders selected as Truman Scholars in 2024, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation announced on April 12. Truman Scholars demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence. Each Truman Scholar receives funding for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government. Edwards aims to go to law school to become a legal advocate for adult survivors of human trafficking. She said she specifically wants to see federal expansion of the Trafficking Victims Protection…

When Gad Nkurunziza ’27 excelled in sixth grade in the Burera district of Rwanda, his school’s headmaster gave him a chicken for his academic achievements. That single chicken introduced Nkurunziza’s family to poultry farming and transformed their lives, he said. Soon, Nkurunziza will bestow the same gift onto other families in his village, with the hopes it will help bring prosperity to his home community. “We as youths are able to not only impact our own lives, but also impact others,” Nkurunziza said. “I believe that society can change for the better. This [can] be done if we put creativity…

Foss Hill is the place for gatherings. Commencement, Spring Fling, baseball games, the first snow fall. They are all occasions for people to grace the grass. Some do it in the spirit of achievement and others in the name of pure, good ‘ole fashioned fun. On April 8, hundreds of Wesleyan students, faculty, staff, and local community members came together on the University green for a different reason—wonder—as a partial solar eclipse passed above them. The Astronomy Department hosted an eclipse viewing on Foss Hill and in the Van Vleck Observatory in partnership with the Russell Library. Organizers passed out…

From book bans to restrictions on teaching, in recent years, there have been clear infringements on First Amendment rights in the U.S. and the problem may be more widespread than people realize. There was, for example, a 33 percent increase in book bans in the 2022-23 school year from the 2021-22 school year, largely targeting books about race, racism, and gender issues or featuring on LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color. Meanwhile, more than 300 gag order bills have been introduced across 46 state legislatures restricting the discussion of gender and racial identities, censorship of teaching materials, and, in some…

The climate change Earth is experiencing today is similar to that during a period of rapid and intense global warming it experienced some 56 million years ago. Understanding the similarities can help scientists evaluate what is happening in today’s warming world, according to Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita. Key to that understanding is figuring out how much oxygen was dissolved in large swaths of the oceans during that period of rapid warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, when average temperatures increased by 5-8o Celsius or 9-14o Fahrenheit in a few thousand years, Thomas…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 wrote an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed on his recent letters to state representatives calling for them to redouble their efforts to bring peace in the Middle East and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. “Silence at a time of humanitarian catastrophe isn’t neutrality; it’s either cowardice or collaboration. We don’t need institution-speak, but we do need leaders of academic and cultural institutions to call on our government and our fellow citizens to address this crisis.” Roth joined the Yale University Press Podcast to talk about his book the history of the student, current crises…

Patricelli Center Awards Funding to Three New Student Ventures

Wesleyan in the News: May 2024

Wesleyan Senior Creates Economic Model to Analyze Digital Bank Runs

At WesFest, Admitted Students Share Opinions on Diversity of Thought, Open Curriculum

Wesleyan in the News: April 2024

Wesleyan Faculty, Alumnus Awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in Choreography, Theatre

Student Veteran Named Truman Scholar

Student’s Agricultural Project in Rwanda Wins Davis Projects for Peace Grant

Gallery: Wesleyan, Local Communities Flock to Foss Hill for Eclipse

Hugo Black Lecturers Establish What’s at Stake When Free Expression on Campus is Imperiled

New Research Suggests Ocean May Increase in Oxygen During Warming

Wesleyan in the News: March 2024