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Mike MavredakisJune 7, 20235min
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence—a document written by a group of five men. Five months later, five different people gathered at the College of William & Mary to form Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States. Now 246 years later, 93 new and current members from Wesleyan’s student body—78 nominated from the spring semester and 15 inducted last fall—packed into the Memorial Chapel on May 27 to be inducted into the honor society. They join an estimated total of over 500,000 living members. Throughout Phi Beta Kappa’s history,…

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Steve ScarpaMay 20, 202218min
Photos from throughout the Reunion weekend can be found here.  The Wesleyan University community gathered together May 19–22 for Reunion and Commencement Weekend 2022. As is Wesleyan’s tradition, the classes ending in 2 and 7 returned to campus to celebrate their reunions with a weekend of lectures, performances, dinners, and ceremonies. With generations of Wesleyans assembled together, the weekend was a celebration of the University’s past and its future. ** Alumni started returning to campus in earnest Friday morning, gathering under a tent outside Russell House for lunch and to look for familiar faces. David Lakein ’92, Juan Luque ’92,…

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Steve ScarpaMay 9, 20226min
Political upheaval. A national reckoning on matters of race. A global pandemic. Any one of these major world happenings would leave an impact on a student’s college experience. But for the Wesleyan University Class of 2022, the totality of events has been, to dredge up an overused expression, unprecedented. As Reunion and Commencement Weekend 2022 approaches, Wesleyan reflects on and celebrates a class that has shown courage, creativity, and resiliency in the face of a complicated and fraught world. “There were difficulties aplenty, but also tremendous fortitude and endless examples of sacrifice for the greater good,” said Michael Whaley, vice…

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Olivia DrakeMay 26, 202123min
All Wesleyan alumni and families were invited to participate in Virtual Reunion 2021: A Week of Wes! from May 10-15. The week's worth of events celebrated the classes of 1s and 6s. A sampling of the virtual reunion events are below: Other reunion events included an Alumni of Color (AOC)/Students of Color (SOC) Reception moderated by Kimberly King ’97, with remarks by Professor Theodore M. Shaw '76; "Pie Pops" with pastry chef Candace Nelson '96 and "Sugar Rush" winner Jennifer Low '06; a Cardinal Family Fun Hour; a book talk with Wesleyan Professor of History Ronald Schatz; a Christina Crosby…

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Himeka CurielMay 26, 201913min
Saidiya Hartman ’84, professor of English and comparative literature and women’s and gender studies at Columbia University, delivered the 2019 Commencement address on May 26. A prize-winning author and 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, Hartman is renowned for her creative combinations of historical research, critical theory, and fictional narrative in exploring “the afterlife of slavery” and its negative effects on the life chances of black Americans. Her essays on film, photography, and feminism have been widely anthologized. During the ceremony, Hartman was named an Honorary Doctor of Letters for “shining a light on those whose histories have been erased and for .…

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Himeka CurielMay 26, 20191min
As part of the 2019 Commencement weekend festivities, graduating seniors reflected on their unique and transformative Wesleyan experiences during the "Senior Voices" event held May 25 in Memorial Chapel. In addition to the speeches, this year's event also included a farewell song, "Irish Friendship Wish," performed by Maria Rodriguez-Castro ’19, Joy Adedokun ’19, and Olivia Backal-Balik ’20. Seniors Vanessa Tostado, Kati Young, and Matthew Erodici spoke of the changes they had undergone during their years at Wesleyan and the community and support that they found while here. Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology Margot Weiss provided the faculty address, encouraging…

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Christian CamerotaMay 26, 20199min
Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 made the following remarks (as prepared) during the 187th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 26: Members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty and staff, distinguished guests, new recipients of graduate degrees and the mighty Class of 2019, I am honored to present some brief remarks on the occasion of this Commencement. I’d like to ask those graduating today to remember the months before you left for college. Do you recall the excitement, nervousness, and anticipation you felt when you first arrived on campus? Meeting your roommates for the first time, getting your…

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Himeka CurielMay 26, 20195min
Hazel V. Carby, who taught English at Wesleyan from 1982 to 1989, was named an Honorary Doctor of Letters during Wesleyan's 187th Commencement Ceremony on May 26. The Charles C. and Dorothea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies and director of the Initiative on Race, Gender and Globalization at Yale University, Carby was lauded for her decades of insightful scholarship, her activism, and her commitment to advancing African American Studies. More about Hazel Carby Carby's remarks as prepared are below: As a member of the faculty during the 1980s I found students at Wesleyan to be exceptionally creative, imaginative,…

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Christian CamerotaMay 26, 20198min
The Reverend Edwin C. Sanders II ’69 is the senior servant and founder of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church (established 1981) in Nashville, Tennessee. An anthropology major while at Wesleyan, Rev. Sanders began his career as co-director of Wesleyan’s African American Institute, later serving on Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees and receiving the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2014. He pursued graduate studies at Yale’s and Vanderbilt’s divinity schools, has been a member of advisory committees and councils for the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, and has spoken at numerous international AIDS conferences. Rev. Sanders is the founding chair and current ambassador of the…

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Himeka CurielMay 26, 20195min
Samuel Morreale ’19, a Science in Society and theater double major, delivered the Senior Class Welcome during Wesleyan’s 187th Commencement ceremony on May 26. The text of his remarks as prepared are below: For me, and many others, Wesleyan has been a space of refuge and respite; it has been a place of escape. My experience here has allowed movement from a place of confinement to a place of “freedom.” I’m not naive; I know I am not truly free and probably won’t ever be. Truth is that I escaped one type of confinement only to enter another. But the space…

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Christian CamerotaMay 26, 20192min
At the University’s 187th Commencement on May 26, Wesleyan presented the Baldwin Medal, the highest award of the Alumni Association, to Barbara-Jan Wilson. For over 36 years, Wilson has been a stalwart in the Wesleyan administration and a driving force behind the University’s fundraising efforts. Beginning at Wesleyan in 1982 as the director of Career Planning, she moved on to serve as dean of Admission and Financial Aid in 1990, and then as vice president of University Relations from 1999 to 2018. Throughout that time, Wilson has been one of the University’s biggest champions and cheerleaders, boldly and convincingly making…