Alumni – Page 18

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News The New York Times Magazine: I'm 20. I Have 32 Half Siblings. This Is My Family Portrait. Eli Baden-Lasar '22 always knew he was conceived using a sperm donor, but he didn't discover he had half siblings until he was 19. He went out searching for them and found more than 30 young men and women around the country. In this photo essay, he writes about the experience of meeting his half siblings. Photo portraits he took…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Morning Call: "Allen Student Wins 'Hamilton' Scholarship, Congrats from Lin-Manuel Miranda" Anna Tjeltveit of Allentown, Penn., winner of the 2019 Wesleyan University Hamilton Prize for Creativity, is profiled. She shares how her winning submission, a one-act play titled, "Five Steps," came together at the last minute, and discusses her early career in theater as well as her plans for her time at Wesleyan. 2. WJLA: "Arlington Teen Wins ‘Hamilton’ Prize Gets a Shout Out from Lin-Manuel Miranda" Cole…

On the Saturday of Reunion & Commencement Weekend, May 25, 2019, the family of President Emeritus Douglas J. Bennet Jr. ’59, P’87, ’94, Hon. ’94 welcomed extended family and a host of friends from the Class of ’59 and other alumni, as well as Wesleyan faculty and staff to gather in Memorial Chapel to remember the life of their husband, father, brother, and grandfather. Bennet died on June 10, 2018, at the age of 79, which was noted in Wesleyan magazine last summer. As this was the Reunion year for his class, the setting provided an opportunity for those who…

At the Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Wesleyan Alumni Association on May 25, seven alumni received Distinguished Alumnus Awards. Three Outstanding Service Awards were presented, along with the James L. McConaughy Jr. Memorial Award, which is given to a member of the community whose writing conveys “unusual insights and understanding of current and past events." Thomas Kail ’99, renowned and award-winning director and producer for theater, film, and television, delivered the keynote, “Finding Your People Matters the Most," tracing the path that led him to his current position through a dedication to service and surrounding himself with others who…

Alumni—especially those whose class years ended in 4 or 9—joined the families of graduating Class of 2019 seniors for a campus-wide series of celebrations, WESeminars, thesis exhibitions, and festivities. Wesleyan's Class of 1969, celebrating their 50th Reunion, began with a dinner on Thursday to gather the group and kick off the weekend. View photos below or on Wesleyan Tumblr. (more…)

On May 25, in conjunction with Reunion & Commencement Weekend events, hundreds of Wesleyan alumni and their families participated in the annual Parade of Classes to the tune of a Dixieland band. (Photos by Tom Dzimian and Rich Marinelli) (more…)

On Feb. 21, 1969, black students, faculty, and staff staged a historic takeover of Fisk Hall, Wesleyan's main academic building at the time, to protest racism and advocate for increased administrative support for people of color at the University. Dubbed the "Vanguard Class" for their place at the forefront of that movement, several members of the Class of 1969 reconvened at Fisk Hall on Saturday, May 25, 2019, to reflect on what being a part of that momentous event 50 years earlier has meant for them and for Wesleyan since. Speaking to more than 100 attendees in a standing-room-only crowd,…

Earlier this semester Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Swapnil Rai invited Matt Sienkiewicz ’03 to be a guest lecturer in her class, FILM 328: Beyond the West. The course “examines the role that film…and other media play in shaping our sense of global, national, and local cultures and identities.” Sienkiewicz, associate professor of communication and chair of the department at Boston College, teaches courses in global media cultures and media theory. One of his eclectic areas of research looks at the West’s investment in Middle Eastern broadcasting initiatives. In 2011 he produced a peer-reviewed documentary film, Live: From Bethlehem,…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News Inside Higher Ed: "The Need for a Recovery of the Humanities" In this essay, President Michael S. Roth responds to the "flood of negativity" in public discourse about higher education, in general, and the humanities, in particular. He suggests that "in order to recover the trust of students and their families, we must overcome our cultivated insularity." 2. NBC News: "Carbon Dioxide Hits a Level Not Seen for 3 Million Years. Here's What That Means for…

In the third of this continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this 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. Alex Kotlowitz ’77: An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago (Penguin Random House, 2019) “Let me tell you what this book is,” Alex Kotlowitz ’77 writes. “It’s not a policy map or a critique. It’s not about what works or doesn’t…

In the second of this continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this 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. Sarah C. Townsend ’90 writes with an urgency that comes not from the saltwater of her tears, but directly from her pen. In Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis, which was released from The Lettered Street Press earlier this…

A book coauthored by Wesleyan alumni Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner ’09 was unanimously chosen as the Common Reading selection for the Class of 2023. The Common Reading is part of Wesleyan's First Year Matters Program, which serves as an introduction to intellectual life at Wesleyan. All Class of 2023 students will receive an electronic copy of the book, Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum (2016). As their first Wesleyan "homework assignment," the students are expected to read it prior to New Student Orientation. The book will serve as a tool for spearheading discussions throughout…

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

President Emeritus Bennet ’59, P’87, ’94, Hon. ’94, Remembered at Memorial Chapel Service

Alumni Honored for Distinguished Achievements, Outstanding Service at Annual Assembly, Meeting

Alumni Celebrate with Old Classmates at 2019 Reunion

Alumni Walk in Annual Parade of Classes

The Vanguard Class of 1969 Offers Reflections After 50 Years

Q&A: Sienkiewicz ’03 on Dual Interests: Comedy and Global Media Studies

Wesleyan in the News

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors

Book by Odede ’12, Posner ’09 Chosen for First Year Matters Program’s Common Reading