Editorial StaffWesleyan’s seniors gathered on the steps of Olin Memorial Library on April 17 for a champagne toast to celebrate the submission of their theses—a culmination of hundreds of hours of research and effort. Here are a selection of images from the event:
Mike MavredakisStudent-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…
Andrew ChatfieldThe exhibition “Dürer and His Time,” on display at the new Pruzan Art Center, is an example of a Wesleyan art education at work. Students in the course “Curatorial Workshop: The Northern Renaissance Print” examined prints in the Davison Art Collection from a pivotal moment in Western tradition in order to pull together the exhibition. It’s a curation of works by renowned German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and select artists from the collection. Assistant Professor of Art History and Medieval Studies Joseph Salvatore Ackley, who teaches the course, guided the student’s research, while Miya Tokumitsu, the Donald T.…
Loren Yuehan Wang ’25 is one of four student-curators whose projects about the history of student artistic practice at Wesleyan, “SUM OF ITS PARTS,” are on display in the Class of 1928 Vitrines, located on the first floor of the Library through April 21. And Wang’s mixed media artwork is on display in the exhibition "Exploding and Netting: A Somatic Archive of Transpacific Movement" in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center through May 25. “These two feel quite connected,” Wang said of their work in the two archives. “It’s a new possibility for the future.”…
By Rose Chen ’26 Wesleyan University’s Democracy in Action convening kicked off Feb. 16 in the John B. Frank Public Affairs Center with a media literacy workshop. Led by Associate Professor of Government Logan Dancey, the session was designed to teach participants to laterally read and ask questions when consuming content. Dancey’s tutorial of government students helped attendees—students, other professors, and community members—fact-check claims across a variety of sources, determine the credibility of claims, and critically engage with political media. During the session, Dancey and those students, Julia Armeli ‘25, Sophie Fetter ‘25, and Rory McClenahan ‘24 discussed a selection…
Wesleyan is home to a wide cast of identities, life experiences, and traditions among its over 3,000 students. Each bring their own stories and backgrounds that combine to make campus a place where difference is celebrated. At Wesleyan, each person has a place to find their community. For some of Wesleyan’s students, finding community lays in sharing where they come from outside of the borders of campus. The university’s second annual Power of Language Week is a chance to set aside time to cherish and display those identities and the many languages that can come with them. The Fries Center…
Sarah ParkeThe U.S. Department of State has released its list of Fulbright Program Top Producing Institutions for the 2023-2024 academic year and Wesleyan University has earned a spot for the fifth consecutive year. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship international academic exchange program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Six Wesleyan University students were selected for Fulbright awards for academic year 2023-24,…
Wesleyan’s Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter is inspiring the next generation of scholars to dig into the world of science and lend a hand to energize the young crop of students that will follow them. SACNAS, led by Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Tere Padilla-Benavides and a group of student officers, is dedicated to supporting diversity and inclusion in the sciences and helps to foster the success of underrepresented groups in STEM. The group’s mission is to show students from underrepresented backgrounds that a career in science, or an adjacent path,…
Wesleyan’s newest Phi Beta Kappa Society members plan to impact the world through service, research, policymaking, music, literature, and art. There were 15 high-achieving Wesleyan students inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society at a ceremony in the McKelvey Room on Dec. 6, joining over 500,000 members from 293 campuses across the country. They join former presidents, members of Congress, and Nobel Laureates as part of the nation’s oldest scholastic honor society. “It is really an impressive honor,” said Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78, who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. “It's not just your grades, it's not…
Four prototype mosaics sit on display in storefront windows along Main Street’s Downtown Business District this fall. The quartet are a sample of what Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art and Art Studio Technician Kate Ten Eyck will install in the pedestrian tunnel connecting downtown Middletown to the Connecticut River as part of a new public art project. The ongoing multi-year mural installation project, called “Mosaics on Main/TunnelVision," will showcase 200 million years of local history. Ten Eyck’s mosaic depicts the dinosaur Anchisaurus, one of the few fossilized skeletons found in the region, in Manchester and East Windsor. Ten Eyck held…
Newly published research on cognitive remediation’s impact on those with mood disorders calls for public health officials to consider assessing and treating cognitive deficits. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Behavior Matthew Kurtz said offering those people with mood disorders and cognitive deficits some type of behavioral treatment may help mitigate their difficulties. Kurtz, Zoey Goldberg ’21, and Brina Kuslak ’21 published “A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive remediation for mood disorders: Efficacy and the role of study quality, sample and treatment factors” in the June edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders. By meta-analyzing 22 unique, controlled studies with nearly…