The Fries Center team was busy at the end of the last academic year creating and refining tools that the campus can use going forward. Decentering Europe. As a complement to our listing of units with a regional or area-studies approach, we have added a list of academic units that have taken steps to decenter the…
Where in the World is Anita?
by Anita Deeg-Carlin, Director of Intercultural Learning Iracambí, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a rainforest research center that is becoming steadily more familiar to our community as Wes students spend their summers interning there. Minas Gerais literally translates to “General Mines” and is an area historically known and mined for its mineral wealth.…
ARHA 325 students travel to Rome and Florence
by Serena Plage Students in Prof. Nadja Aksamija’s seminar Eloquent Forms: Topics in Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture went on a 12-day, faculty-led study trip to Rome and Florence over spring break (March 9-21, 2024). Some of the highlights in Rome included the Capitoline Museums and the Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, the Villa Borghese, and…
Internationalizing Chemistry
This past year (2023-24), the Wesleyan community was enriched by the presence of our first-ever Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence (S-I-R), Dr. Pawan Sharma from Kurukshetra University in India. The S-I-R program aims to promote campus internationalization by bringing scholar-teachers to campus for either a semester or a whole academic year; as Fulbright explains on its website, “S-I-Rs…
Celebrating Faculty Research on International Topics 2023-24 Part IV:STEM & Health
by Tasmiah Akter Wesleyan faculty’s collective expertise spans the globe, and the Office for Intercultural Learningat the Fries Center for Global Studies is pleased to celebrate their international and oftenmultilingual work here in the Wes and the World newsletter. This is the last part of the four partseries where we spent time highlighting different topics…
Meet the GEM Student Advisory Board!
by Tasmiah Akter The Global Engagement Minor (GEM) at Wesleyan is a unique opportunity for Wesleyan students to explore their academic interests, extracurricular activities, and language skills in learning how to navigate the world! The GEM provides immense flexibility by allowing students to select courses that provide a global perspective according to their interests, continue…
Eurovision @ Wes
by Oleksandra Volakova Last weekend, dozens of singers, musicians, and bands from different countries performed in the Grand Final of Eurovision, an annual international song competition. It unites people of various countries who are overwhelmed and inspired by emotions and is meant to create a politics-free safe space. Each country of the European Broadcasting Union…
Language Buddies: Don’t Lose Your Language Skills Over the Summer!
Registration for the Language Buddies program is open for the summer break! Coordinated through the Fries Center for Global Studies, Language Buddies is a program that matches Wesleyan students, faculty, or staff members with one another to practice their language skills over academic breaks through a series of self-paced, online conversational activities. This initiative was…
Two Wesleyan Seniors Win the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
Wesleyan is one of 41 partner institutions whose graduating seniors are eligible to apply for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This fellowship, often known on our campus simply as “The Watson,” provides $40,000 in funding for fellows to engage their unique individual interests on the global scale. Fellows create their own original projects, execute them…
Adventures Around the World for Children: Wes Students Volunteer at Russell Library for Intercultural Fair
by Oleksandra Volakova Traveling to ten different countries in four continents in less than two hours sounds impossible, but not for those who visited Russell Library on Saturday, April 27. At the “Adventures Around the World” event, children got a chance to get acquainted with different cultures, listen to other languages, and taste various international…
Critical Language Scholarship: 2024 Finalists Share Their CLS Aspirations and Advice for Future Applicants
The Critical Language Scholarship is an opportunity for university students from the United States to interact with new languages and cultures to promote intercultural and global engagement, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Every summer, students take part in an immersive eight-to-ten week program at intensive CLS study abroad institutes. Students have the option…
Student Veteran Named Truman Scholar
by Mike Mavredakis Student-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…
The Class Goes to the Museum
by Ana Pérez Gironés Teaching Spanish K-12: Second Language Pedagogy (SPAN 204/EDST 204/GBST 318) is a service-learning CLAC course in which students learn about basic concepts of language learning and teaching while engaging in supporting Spanish classes at Lawrence School, one of the Middletown public elementary schools. During the first half of the semester, Wesleyan…
The Salsa Class Mentality
by Teva Corwin While I love to dance, I will be the first person to tell you that coordinated footsteps and tasteful hand movements aren’t my strong suit. Instead, I somewhat chaotically move to the music with little acknowledgment of its rhythm – my elbows often take center stage in my questionable, yet quite expressive,…
Dowling ’25 Receives Goldwater Scholarship
Adin Dowling ’25, a triple major in Physics, Math, and the College of Integrative Sciences, is one of 508 math, science, and engineering students nationwide to be awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
Debbra Goh ’24 Selected for Gaither Junior Fellows Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC
Wesleyan’s Debbra Goh ‘24 has been accepted into the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows program at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace and will begin her work in Washington, DC in September.