Written by Olivia Drake, first published in The Wesleyan Connection Katerina Ramos-Jordán ’21 is the recipient of a Beinecke Scholarship, which will support her graduate career and her academic goal of becoming a cultural studies scholar. She’s among 18 college undergraduates nationwide to receive the honor, and she’s the first Wesleyan student to receive the award in…
2020 Watson Fellows: Inayah Bashir ’20, Luke Lezhanskyy ’20
Written by Olivia Drake, first published in The Wesleyan Connection As recipients of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, two Wesleyan seniors will explore their academic aspirations internationally through a yearlong personal project. Inayah Bashir ’20 and Luka Lezhanskyy ’20 are among 47 Watson Fellows selected from 153 finalists. This year’s class comes from 20 states and…
Human Rights Advocates: Environmental Racism is Compounding the Pandemic’s Toll on Communities of Color
By Joshua Petersen and Ruhan Nagra, University Network for Human Rights The University Network for Human Rights, based on Wesleyan’s campus, trains undergraduate students at Wesleyan and across the country in community-centered, interdisciplinary human rights advocacy. Read more about the University Network’s inaugural intensive summer training program here. Are you a Wesleyan student who…
From One Crisis to Another: A Dispatch on the Effects of University Responses to COVID-19 on Low-Income Undergraduates
By Heather Cassell ’23 An earthquake, the shifting of tectonic plates, has the potential to either disrupt a Sunday brunch or devastate entire societies. It all depends on how stable and secure the structures in place. If you felt a 7.0 quake in California, you might feel your house shake or watch buildings sway. A…
Fulbright Feature: Jed Munson ’19
Jed Munson ‘19, who majored in English with a minor in the College of East Asian Studies, won a Fulbright creative arts grant to South Korea. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a federally funded program established by Senator J. William Fulbright after World War II to promote “international good will through the exchange of…
Returns and Reflections: Emma Distler ’19 on her Fulbright Experience in Italy
Ciao a tutti! Hello everyone! Our world has undoubtedly turned upside down due to Covid-19; however, prior to the pandemic I was fortunate to have had my Fulbright experience abroad in Sicily as an English Teaching Assistant at a specialized Italian high school, Istituto Tecnico Borghese-Faranda. Throughout the school year, I was placed in a…
Fulbright Feature: Abe Kipnis ’19
Written by Abe Kipnis ’19 with Inayah Bashir Abe Kipnis ‘19, a physics and College of Integrative Sciences major, won a Fulbright grant to Finland for 2020-2021 to pursue a Master’s degree in Computational Engineering and Technical Physics at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT). (Click to read about Wesleyan’s other 2020 Fulbrighters). The Fulbright…
6 Alumni Win Fulbright Grants; 2 Named Alternates
Written by Magdalena Zapędowska [za-pen-doff-ska] Top: Abe Kipnis ’19, Afrah Boateng ’20, Ananya Subrahmanian ’18, Anthony Price ’20 Bottom: Gustavo Sanabria ’19, Inayah Bashir ’20, Jed Munson ’19, Nicole McCann ’18 Congratulations to the six Wesleyan alumni who won Fulbright grants this year! Inayah Bashir ’20, who majored in the College of Social Studies, won…
Fellowship Spotlight: The Udall Scholarship
Written by Inayah Bashir ’20 Gabriel Snashall ’20 Shaya Tousi ’21 The Udall Foundation, established by the U.S. Congress in 1992, is an independent executive branch agency to honor Morris K. Udall’s impact on America’s environment, public lands, natural resources, and his support of the rights of…
Event Recap: Study Abroad Pre-Departure Orientation
On Wednesday May 6, the Office of Study Abroad hosted a virtual pre-departure orientation for students planning to study abroad for the fall semester. The orientation covered Wesleyan-specific considerations and items such as health and safety practices, acclimating to a new culture, negotiating one’s own cultural identity abroad, academic policies, as well as the potential…
Re-entry Adjustment: The Triumph and Challenges of Returning Home from Abroad
Returning from abroad can be difficult for students as they reacclimatize to life back in their own country. You have changed during your time abroad, home has changed, and you will be seeing familiar people, places, and behaviors from new perspectives. These changes will lead to some new emotional and psychological responses as part of a process called…
Soirée Zoom – the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris end-of-semester celebration
Study abroad in spring 2020 was certainly not what any of our students expected. The Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris celebrated the end of its semester on April 24 with a reception, held, of course, on Zoom. Vassar Professor Vinay Swamy, who was Resident Director of the program for 2019-2020, provided some highlights for students who…
Haiku as a Way of Healing: Peter Cherr ’79 and His Daily Poetry Challenge
Peter C. Cherr, BA ’79. MALS ’80, put himself through Wesleyan, working as a security guard, in the dean’s office, the admissions office, and for the summer school, and majoring in philosophy and religion, one course short of a world music major and doing his thesis in film. At Wesleyan he learned to problem solve…
Wes alum urges support for globally hard-hit restaurant business
I’m Luke Pang, a 2010 Singaporean Freeman scholar. I double majored in Neuroscience and Psychology at Wesleyan, and upon graduating, decided to postpone my medical school studies to explore the culinary world. I worked in the kitchen in Convivio and Ciano in New York City for a year, and upon deciding to commit to the…
Tragic Beauty: An Essay by Don Fels ’68
Don Fels, Wesleyan ’68, and father of Benjamin Fels ’06,was an American Studies major at Wes, one of the first two to graduate. He put together his major from English, History and Art. Half a century later, he still is very much involved with all three disciplines. A visual artist and writer, he is based…
“I’m Sorry But–” a poem by Sam Meagher ’21
My name’s Samantha Meagher. I’m from New Jersey. I’m a rising senior with a double major in Sociology and HISP. I wrote this poem because Wesleyan is a place that has allowed me to form deep connections and learn so much more about myself. It feels awful to be torn away from it so abruptly…