David PesciAddress by Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth '77 on the 178th Commencement at Wesleyan University, May 23, 2010: Members of the board of trustees, members of the faculty and staff, distinguished guests, new recipients of graduate degrees and the mighty class of 2010, I am honored to present some brief remarks on the occasion of this commencement. It is thrilling for me to stand here before you in such distinguished company. I am joined today by the very honorable Mayor John Hickenlooper, who has an undergraduate and a graduate degree from Wes. This gives me an occasion to remind all…
Latasha Alcindor ’10, delivered the following Senior Class Welcome at Wesleyan's 178th Commencement Ceremonies on May 23, 2010: Today is the first day of my presentation. Today is the first day of your presentation. Today is the first day of our presentation. (more…)
"Senior Voices" Address by Jonna Humphries '10, delivered at Memorial Chapel during the 178th Wesleyan University Commencement: How I Have Changed Because of My Experience at Wesleyan. When I was younger, perhaps around 10 years old, my Mom would always ask my brothers and I at the end of a school day “What did you learn?” We’d give her responses filled with details on topics ranging from what happened on the playground between so-and-so to a full recap on the letter in cursive we’d learn to master that day. We did this until one day, my older brother Alexander, completely…
"Senior Voices" Address by Rebecca Lee '10, delivered at Memorial Chapel during the 178th Wesleyan University Commencement: I would like to talk today about communities. The village I grew up in, on the outskirts of Cambridge, England, was an international community composed of families affiliated with the university. The children of these expatriate families, including myself, led a blissful childhood, playing street hockey and holding water fights in our neighborhood. At the end of each day the families gathered for a potluck dinner of cuisines from all (more…)
"Senior Voices" Address by Satrio Wicaksono ‘10 as delivered at Memorial Chapel on the morning of Wesleyan University's 178th Commencement ceremonies, May 23, 2010: It all started more than four years ago, when a big red envelope sent via FedEx arrived at my boarding school, a modern madrasah, in the suburbs of Jakarta, Indonesia. Inside the envelope was a congratulatory note from the Dean of Admissions at Wesleyan University, saying that I had been selected to receive the Freeman Asian Scholarship to attend Wesleyan. The Freeman Foundation decided to send a group of incoming Freeman Scholars, myself included, to attend…
Bill HolderThe first-floor lounge of the Center for African American Studies will be renovated thanks to a $50,000 gift from Michelle ’84 and Kurt ’87 Lyn P’12 of Houston, Texas. Their gift honors the 40th anniversary of the establishment of CAAS and is intended to make the lounge a more attractive venue for the entire campus community. Ashraf Rushdy, professor and chair of the African American Studies Program, professor of English, expressed deep gratitude to the Lyn family for their generosity. “The money will be used to make the lounge even more welcoming (more…)
Olivia DrakeMore than 5,000 alumni, family and friends of the university are expected to attend Reunion & Commencement Weekend on campus. The traditional series of events begins Thursday, May 20 and culminates with Commencement on Sunday, May 23. “We have several new and exciting events this year including a benefit concert by Santigold (Santi White ’97) on Friday under the Andrus tent, and a MoConathon concert on Saturday featuring three student bands, celebrating McConaughy Hall,” says Deana Hutson, director of events and R&C weekend. “We’ll have numerous WESeminars featuring alumni, parents, faculty and students on topics that appeal to anyone.” The…
A $298,736 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow Wesleyan to remain competitive in numerical modeling research and education on an international level. Francis Starr, associate professor of physics, David Beveridge, the Joshua Boger University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics, and Michael Weir, professor of biology, director of the Hughes Program in the Life Sciences, received the grant for a project titled “Major Research Instrumentation – Recovery and Reinvestment program (MRI-R2): Acquisition of Shared Cluster and Database Computing Facilities at Wesleyan University.” The grant, awarded over three years beginning May 1, will fund growth of the computer…
Ten years from now, Daniela Ivanova ’10 envisions herself working as an advisor to a European commissioner or member of the Bulgarian government. Her next step in the quest will take place at the University of Oxford, in England. Ivanova is a recipient of a Weidenfeld Scholarship and Leadership Programme for 2010-11. Awarded by the London-based Institute for Strategic, the scholarship will allow Bulgaria native Ivanova to pursue her career goal by supporting her studies on European politics and society at Oxford. “Daniela came straight to Wesleyan from a high school in a remote Bulgarian provincial town,” says Peter Rutland,…
Anne Mariel Peters, assistant professor of government, has been selected as a 2010-2011 Academic Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C. As an FDD fellow, Peters will participate in an intensive course on terrorism and counterterrorism at the University of Tel Aviv from May 30 to June 9. The course examines terrorism from a variety of political, academic, and law enforcement perspectives. It also includes site visits to Israeli security installations and border zones, as well as meetings with Israeli, Jordanian, Turkish and Indian officials. Peters’ expertise is in the political economies of the…
Shining Hope for Communities, a student-founded non-profit organization, has been named the winner of the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition. The award is based on a world-wide competition among college students who create projects that can “make the world a better place.” Shining Hope for Communities founded The Kibera School for Girls in 2009 in the Kenyan slum of Kibera, and is creating the Johanna Justin Jinich Memorial Clinic and a community center this year at the same site. Initial funding for the Kibera School for Girls was provided by the Davis 100 Projects for Peace program. The Dell award…
Corrina KerrFor this issue, we queried Laurie Nussdorfer, professor of history, letters and medieval studies and author of Brokers of Public Trust: Notaries in Early Modern Rome (published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2009). She supplied her answers in writing, of course. Q: How did the idea for the book begin? A: Daniel Rosenberg ’88 wrote a senior honors thesis in the History Department about the historiography of literacy (how historians had interpreted and investigated the ability of people to read in the past). I was one of the readers of this fascinating thesis, and it occurred to me…