All News – Page 30

Eudice Chong '18, one of greatest individual competitors in the history of Wesleyan Athletics, competed in the 2023 Australian Open qualifiers. She lost to Carol Zhao of Canada 6-3, 6-2. Chong holds the distinction of being the first Wesleyan women’s tennis player to compete in a Grand Slam event. Chong’s career trajectory has been on the rise the past several years. Her Women’s Tennis Association ranking has increased, and she used the pandemic disruption wisely, training for 18 months at the Hong Kong Sports Institute. As a result, Chong has been playing the best tennis of her professional career heading…

The past year began in uncertainty due to the global pandemic and the ongoing strife happening in our country and throughout the world. However, the Wesleyan University community persevered and thrived. Faculty explored new and innovative ideas, and students grew in ways that they couldn’t have anticipated. Throughout the year the Wesleyan Connection was there to document the life of a place that is always creative, always pushing for a better and more just world. Here’s a small sampling of the stories that mattered this past year: January The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded the Carceral Connecticut Project, a multidisciplinary…

Are you already able to sing Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. ‘15’s Hamilton word for word? Have you already binged Bradley Whitford ’81, Hon. ’20 in “The West Wing” and “A Handmaid’s Tale"? Have you read all of Amy Bloom’s books? So now where do you go next to get your Wesleyan creative fix? As winter curls around us, Wes grads and faculty have conjured a new batch of books, music, performances, and television shows to delight and challenge us as we get cozy over the chilly months. Here’s just a small sampling: “From Scratch” Tembe Locke ’92’s powerful memoir From…

By Dr. Jennifer D’Andrea, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services The holidays can be a time of relaxation, joy, and connection with loved ones. They can also be a time of stress, sadness, and loneliness. Over the next six weeks, we won’t see as much of each other as we normally do. Many members of our community will take time away from Wesleyan to celebrate the holiday season with family and friends, while others will remain on campus to rest and catch up on individual projects. Whatever our plans may be, we may find ourselves struggling. This time of year, most…

In this continuing series, we review alumni books and offers a selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University’s collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Carter Bays ’97, The Mutual Friend (Penguin Random House, 2022) It’s the summer of 2015, and 28-year-old Alice Quick needs to get to work. She has three months to study for the MCAT, and if she can just keep her eyes on the prize, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor. A…

Without using words, movement can tell stories and communicate complex emotions. Wesleyan students across different class years presented new group works focusing on a diversity of techniques, methods, and aesthetic approaches in the Winter Dance Concert “11 Short Stories” on December 9 and 10 in the Center for the Arts Theater. Dance makers from the class DANC 250 “Dance Composition: Choreography Workshop,” taught by Assistant Professor of the Practice in Dance Joya Powell, focused this past fall on the process of making a dance in a theatrical setting. Similar to a collection of short stories by different authors, the resulting…

(Updated January 4, 2022) Assistant Professor of Theatre Maria-Christina Oliveras joined the cast of "Between Riverside and Crazy" by Stephen Adly Giuirgis as Church Lady. (Broadwayworld) President Michael S. Roth '78 reviews "In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility," by philosopher Costica Bradatan in the December 28 Washington Post. "(Bradatan) looks at how various thinkers — Seneca, Mohandas Gandhi, Simone Weil, Emil Cioran, Yukio Mishima — detached themselves from an obsessive drive for worldly success by reckoning with failure and death. Bradatan wants us to grasp how striving to succeed prevents us from dealing with our mortality and hence…

For the fifth year, Wesleyan Public Safety partnered with the Middletown Fire Department and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to sponsor the Holiday Toy Drive December 5 – 9. The "Stuff a Cruiser" toy collection was held in the Huss Courtyard between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. each day. As with any successful venture, location and timing were key. By setting up during the height of daily traffic to the Usdan University Center and the Daniel Family Commons and making sure a QR code was available for online donations, over $1,000 was raised in addition to the toys that were…

Wesleyan University’s picturesque campus takes on a new glow when the first snow falls. Students are busy wrapping up the semester and now there is just enough snow on Foss Hill to allow for a sled run – a rite of passage for Wesleyan students across the generations. Photos by James Sims.

An informal poll of a group of three- to five-year-old kids at the recently opened Neighborhood Preschool concluded that the best part of their new school is that they get a chance to climb indoors. And play in the pretend kitchen. The blocks and trains aren’t too bad either. And they like being able to go on the playground. Really, they just like the whole thing. “You seem pretty excited about it, buddy,” a dad said to his son. “Yeah!” the child responded. The students and their teachers, architects, and staff members gathered on Thursday, December 8 to cut a…

With pride in their accomplishments and hopes for a bright future, fifteen students celebrated their initiation into the Connecticut Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at a ceremony held on December 7 in the McKelvey Room at the Office of Admission. In order to be inducted into the nation’s oldest scholastic honor society, students must be nominated by the department of their major, have completed their general education expectations, and must have a grade point average of 93 or above. “For students elected in the fall, it is an especially exacting selection process because admittance is based on a student’s…

Sports writer Seth Berkman doesn't really like covering games themselves. He’s more interested in the other stories that take place—someone's personal political views, or the way that politics or economics intertwine with sports. “How they approach…their individual value, their roles in society, their platforms that they're…given as these athletes are more and more seen as celebrities and people of influence in different countries,” said Berkman. For the past decade, New York-based journalist Berkman has contributed to The New York Times Sports section, and has also reported on business and investigative news. He initially focused on sports in Asia, as well…

Chong ’18 Competes in 2023 Australian Open

Year in Review: 2022

Wesleyan Creates: Recommendations

Support Your Mental Health: Advice for the Holidays

“You Just Have to Read This…” Books by Wesleyan Authors Bays ’97, Donaldson ’85, and White ’93

Students Share Personal Experiences Through Dance

Wesleyan in the News: December 2022

Public Safety Holds Annual Toy Drive

A Welcoming Wesleyan Sight: The First Snow of 2022

Neighborhood Preschool Opens

New Phi Beta Kappa Inductees Named

Berkman Talks About Importance of Global Sports