Olivia DrakeWesleyan held its 177th Commencement Ceremony May 24. During the event, 732 students received a Bachelor of Arts; 61 received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies; two received a Certificate of Advanced Study; 31 received a Master of Arts; and 16 received a Doctor of Philosophy. Ten other students will receive a Bachelor of Arts upon completion. Commencement speeches, photographs and videos are now online in The Wesleyan Connection. Commencement highlights: https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/24/wesleyan-holds-177th-commencement-ceremonies/ Commencement Address by Anna Quindlen P'07: https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/24/quindlen-p07-embrace-transformation/ President's Remarks by Michael S. Roth '78: https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/24/president-roth-asks-class-of-2009-to-help-shape-culture/ Senior Class Welcome by Ravid Chowdhury '09: https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/24/chowdhury-09-leads-senior-class-welcome/ Honorary Degree Recipients remarks by…
David PesciKennedy Odede '11 grew up in Kibera, Kenya's worst slum, taught himself English and made it to Wesleyan. Now, Odede and Jessica Posner '09 have received a Projects for Peace Grant and is going back to Kibera to build a school for girls. Odede and Posner were also featured on a show on WNPR's "Where We Live" that focused on "Responding to Needs in Africa." Their part starts at roughly the 49 minute mark.
Jonas Mischara-Blomberger ´11 and Carl T. West ´11 have each received a Goldwater Scholarship Award for the 2009-2010 academic year. Established by Congress in 1986, The Goldwater is the most prestigious national undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, physics and engineering.
Students in the multidisciplinary course "Making the Science Documentary” spent the semester learning film production and the framework of science documentaries. The students decided to focus on the nursing profession as their main subject. One of the films made in the course was premiered at the 2009 Nightengale Awards for Excellence, an annual nursing awards banquet in Connecticut. The course is a collaboration between Jacob Bricca, adjunct assistant professor of film studies and Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.
In a oped piece for The New Haven Register, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen '09, suggests that Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd can start to re-burnish his bruised public image by, among other things, coming up with a more folksy nickname.
Kennedy Odede '12 and Jessica Posner '09 are recipients of a "Projects for Peace Award" for their proposal to build a girls school in the Kenyan slum of Kiberia. The slum was Odede's home growing up and a place where girls and young women routinely become victims of violence, mistreatment, and abuse of all sorts. The students, who received $10,000 to build the school, hope that the institution will provide both a refuge and an opportunity for girls who enroll.
Crude Independence, a documentary film directed and scored by Noah Hutton '09 and edited by Hutton and Alex Footman '09, has been featured at a number of flim festivals during the last few months, including the presitigious South By Southwest in March. Hutton is profiled in The Hartford Courant. A free screening of Crude Independence for the campus community was held at the CFA Cinema on Friday, April 3.
An article in The Christian Science Monitor features the community outreach being done by 8 student mentors with Middletown youth at WESU. The program, created by Mu Abeledo '09 and Jessica Jones '08, involves mentors teaching the participants how to operate equipment, refine their on-air abilities and broadcast their own shows live on WESU.
For Julia Celeste, her support of Barack Obama for U.S. President was never in question. Her parents had other inclinations. But today, as The New York Times reports, they are all at the Inauguration together.
In dramatic fashion, the Wesleyan Men's Basketball Team gave NESCAC rival and nationally-ranked #5 Amherst its first loss of the season with a buzzer-beating, last-second shot from 30 feet away by Jeremy Kaminer '10. Channel 30 reported the news and offers a video highlight provided by Wesleyan's Athletic Department. The January 6th win was the Men's first against Amherst's basketball team since 2001.
Lisa Drennan '09 was named a second team All American and became the only Wesleyan athlete ever to become a two-time NESCAC Player of the Year.
Gabe Tomasulo '11 and Craig Ewer '10 were among first-time voters in a presidential race featured in a recent newspaper story.