Cynthia RockwellDecember 6, 20133min
Over a lunch of pizza in Beckham Hall on Dec. 5, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, a serial entrepreneur and author of Without Their Permission, addressed a crowded hall of nearly 200 students. He spoke on the importance of the internet, which allows us to access “an incredible amount of information,” and our ability to make use of it to develop new ideas, through maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset. Asking for a showing of hands of those involved in their own creative endeavors, he invited students to seize all opportunities to tell people about their idea—and to view all failures as the…

David LowDecember 6, 20133min
Kate Cooper ’82 has written a new history of the early Christian movement, Band of Angels: The Forgotten World of Early Christian Women (Overlook Press), in which she provides a vibrant narrative of the triumphs and hardships of the first mothers of the infant church. As far as recorded history is concerned, women in the ancient world lived almost invisibly in a man's world. Piecing together their story from the few contemporary accounts that have survived required painstaking research, and Cooper offers a fresh perspective on the triumphs and hardships encountered by these early women. The book tells the intriguing…

David LowDecember 6, 20135min
Stuart Frank ’70, has been awarded the Historic New England Book Prize for 2013, for Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, published in Boston by David R. Godine. The award was formally presented on Nov. 3 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The book is also the recipient of the Boston Bookmakers Prize for the year’s best work in the pictorial category. Frank’s book brings his expert’s eye to the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s intriguing collection. By the middle of the 19th century, the New England port of New Bedford was among the five richest…

Olivia DrakeDecember 6, 20131min
Larry Woolard II '03 was sworn into the City of Middletown Police Department in October 2013. At Wesleyan, he was a religion studies major and captain of the football team. "Larry was quite a football player for Xavier High School and for the Cardinals, especially in an exciting Homecoming win over Williams. I suspect he is one of Wesleyan's first local police officers," said John Driscoll, advisor in the Wesleyan Career Center.

Olivia DrakeDecember 6, 20131min
On Nov. 20, Zoe Mueller '13 spoke about "GIS in the Real World: How to Land a GIS Job" during National Geography Awareness Week celebrations at Wesleyan. GIS (geographic information systems) allow users to visualize, question, analyze, interpret, model and understand data to reveal relationships, patterns and trends. Mueller spoke to current students about careers in GIS, differences between non-profit and for-profit work, and applications of GIS outside of academia. Wesleyan's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences also sponsored multiple events in honor of National Geography Awareness Week, including a crowdsourced GIS map and geocaching scavenger hunt.    

Cynthia RockwellDecember 6, 20132min
Dr. Henri Lamothe ’80, MD, CMSL, received the Dr. Gary Ogden Rural Health Practitioner of the Year from the New York State Association for Rural Health. As the medical director of 22 emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in Allegany and Cattaraugus counties, Dr. Lamothe ensures that the EMS providers he represents have the skills and training they need to provide emergency medical care. Paramedic Todd Reisner, general manager of Trans Am Ambulance Service in Olean, N.Y., said of Lamothe, “He’s a very active medical director. He makes himself available to the EMS providers and his vision of a solid EMS…

David LowDecember 6, 20135min
B. J. Buckley ’76 has written a new collection of poems, Spaces Both Infinite and Eternal  (Limberlost Press) which considers the natural world, quiet, unspoken events—the accidental death of an owl, a porcupine gorging on apples, unobserved fragrant meadows, the roar of wind through cottonwoods. The presence of man is barely acknowledged in the rugged western landscapes of these poems. Buckley’s voice is a quiet guide through rural, mountainous territory. Her book is printed letterpress, using lead type on a old hand-fed platen press. A native of Wyoming, Buckley lives on a ranch near Power, Montana. She has worked in…

David LowDecember 6, 20132min
Katey Rich ’06 has a new position as digital Hollywood editor at Vanity Fair, where she is overseeing The Hollywood Blog. Before Vanity Fair, Rich worked at the Cinema Blend website for six years, and her last job there was editor-in-chief. She was previously an editorial assistant at Film Journal International. As Wesleyan she major in film studies and English. For those who have read Rich's writing at Cinema Blend, they already know she has been a savvy chronicler of the film scene and an entertaining film critic for years.  At vanityfair.com, Wesleyan alumni can currently enjoy her thoughts on…

Cynthia RockwellDecember 6, 20134min
Anna Moench ’06 and Arturo Vidich ’03 were 2013 recipients of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowships—an honor that only 3 percent of the applicants are awarded. Anna Moench was named in playwriting/screenwriting discipline and Arturo Vidich was named in choreography, selected by state-wide peer panels. First launched in 1985, NYFA’s Artist Fellowship Program has provided over $27 million in unrestricted cash grants to artists in 15 disciplines at critical stages in their careers. Awards are made in five disciplines a year on a triennial basis. Past recipients include the winners of five Academy Awards, five Tony Awards,…

Cynthia RockwellDecember 6, 20132min
Meiyi Cheng ’13 was selected as one of 32 fellows, from a pool of 700 applicants, to participate in Challenge Detroit, an urban revitalization program focused on attracting and retaining talent in Detroit in an effort to spur revitalization. Challenge Detroit, a one-year program, provides the opportunity for fellows to work at top regional companies while spending one day a week collaborating with area non-profits to address regional challenges and opportunities, including multi-modal transportation, homelessness, and community development. During her year with Challenge Detroit, Cheng will be working with partnering host company, Mango Languages. Challenge Detroit’s executive director, Deirdre Greene…

Bill FisherDecember 6, 20131min
Rick Gilberg '74, P'16, P'14 describes his Wesleyan education as a "game-changer." The son of working-class parents who never attended college, Gilberg was able to attend Wesleyan only with the support of a generous financial aid package. A religion major in the College of Letters, he says the opportunity enabled him to discover sides of himself he never knew existed. Gilberg is now a labor attorney in New York with two children attending Wesleyan. Watch the video below: [youtube]http://youtu.be/M4HH70Toq3s[/youtube] #THIS IS WHY