Money and Social Change Class Awards $10K to 4 Local Non-Profits

The gift-giving season came early for four non-profit organizations in the local community. On Dec. 7, a class of 10 innovative problem solvers with an interest in philanthropy, awarded $10,000 in grant funds to selected organizations. As part of the the course Money and Social Change: Innovative Paradigms and Strategies, students spent the fall semester thinking about the role of capital in social change. Students researched the mission statements of 188 organizations in Middlesex County, compared them side by side, and after a final six-hour voting process, whittled their selection to four. The surprise monetary awards, provided to the class by the Learning by…

(more…)

Fifteen seniors were inducted to the university's Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during a ceremony on Dec. 2. (more…)

Arpita Vora ’16 clicks through a website that seeks to raise awareness about the hardships faced by low-income families in North Carolina. Middlesex United Way, the organization at which Vora was placed through the Center for Community Partnerships’ yearlong pilot Nonprofit Board Residency Program, is hoping to create a similar site using data from Connecticut. (more…)

Four Wesleyan undergraduates and a faculty member received awards in the latest call for proposals from NASA's Connecticut Space Grant Consortium. Astronomy major Rachel Aronow '17 was awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the amount of $5,000 for her project, "Planet Formation and Stellar Characteristics in Tatooine-like Systems." She is working with Bill Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, studying Tatooine-like systems (named after the fabled home system of Luke Skywalker), which are planet-forming disks that surround a close pair of stars that are in orbit around each other. Aronow conducted research with Herbst last summer, and these funds will support further…

Two evenings of theater will be presented by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures this month. Both events are free and open to the public and will take place at the department's common room at 300 High Street in Middletown, Conn. Students from French 281 and Theater 291 will present three plays in French on Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.: "Tu honoreras ton père et ta mère" or “You Will Honor Your Father and Mother," by Samira Sedira; "Ah! La belle vie" or “Oh! The Good Life," by Anne Giafferi; and “First Lady,” by Sedef Ecer. A reception will follow. The…

Wesleyan Earth and Environmental Sciences students and faculty attended and contributed to this year’s Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting, held Nov. 1–4 in Baltimore, Md. (more…)

The world is currently facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Concerned Wesleyan students are volunteering with community organizations, coordinating various speaker panels, fundraising for international NGOs and agencies, and engaging in advocacy efforts. This fall, Casey Smith ’17 and Cole Phillips ’16 founded the Wesleyan Refugee Project (WRP). Smith, a College of Social Studies major who is pursuing certificates in Middle Eastern studies and international relations, has worked with refugees since high school, advocated for refugees’ rights in Washington, D.C., and volunteered for refugee resettlement organizations. She is currently studying abroad in Jordan, where she helps refugees access…

The basement of the University Organizing Center at 190 High Street is now home to Red Feather Studios, Wesleyan’s first and only student-run recording studio. Red Feather officially opened in spring 2015 after being a work in progress for a few years. “The music culture at Wesleyan is unlike any I’ve seen at other universities,” added Oscar Parajon '16, a founding member and head studio manager at Red Feather, who is majoring in American Studies. “Before Red Feather Studios, what was happening was a plethora of ‘bedroom producers’ throughout campus that did not have a platform to make their art.” According…

Q: Anna, where are you from and what attracted you to Wesleyan? A: I am from Woodbridge, Conn. and I was born in New York, but I didn’t seriously look into Wesleyan until October of my senior year of high school! When I was looking for schools I wanted to stick closer to home and, at the time, I was being recruited for swimming—a sport that had dominated my time during high school and that I had decided to pursue at the collegiate level. Of all the schools I looked at, I narrowed it down to a couple NESCAC schools and Wesleyan…

Two members of the Wesleyan community participated in a discussion on WNPR's Where We Live focused on "Confronting Social Injustice." Bashaun Brown, a former student at Wesleyan's Center for Prison Education who spent more than six years incarcerated at Cheshire Correctional Institution, is now pursuing an entrepreneurial venture called TRAP House. "All prison experience is pretty bad, but thanks to Wesleyan, I was able to transform my prison space. My prison experience was one of educating myself, and trying to get better and make sure I never make the types of mistakes that I made to get into that situation in the first place.…

University Relations hosted Thank a Cardinal Day Nov. 16 in Usdan University Center. More than 400 students wrote brief thank you notes to alumni, parents and friends who’ve donated through the Wesleyan Fund in 2015. All the gifts raised by the fund count in Wesleyan’s THIS IS WHY fundraising campaign promoting access, inquiry and impact across the university.

Money and Social Change Class Awards $10K to 4 Local Non-Profits

PhD Candidate Colwell Speaks on Throat Singing as Part of Graduate Student Speaker Series

15 Seniors Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa

Pilot Program Gives Students Insight into Local Nonprofits

Several Wesleyan Projects Awarded NASA’s CT Space Grants

RL&L Presents Two Evenings of Theater

E&ES Faculty, Students Contribute to GSA Annual Meeting

Wesleyan Refugee Project Aids Refugees from around the World

Student Artists, Bands Record Music at Red Feather Studios

Science in Society Major Lu ’17 Interested in Public Healthcare, Neurophysiology

‘Where We Live’ Features Wesleyan CPE, Doula Project

400 Students Thank a Cardinal for Giving to the Wesleyan Fund