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,…

Journey into Exile – Capturing Life Through the Lens of a Refugee

by Oleksandra Volakova As of September 2023, more than 114 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide, which is rapidly increasing. You and your friends have probably always lived in one place, leaving it mostly for traveling. Because of this, it is complicated to understand the daily hardships and problems refugee people face. Unless you will…

Celebrating and Embracing Diversity: Redefining Spanish Identity in the 21st Century

by Nataly Huyhua Earlier this week, on Monday, April 15th, a thought-provoking lecture titled “Spain is Not OnlyWhite: National Identity in the 21st Century” provided an exploration of Spain’s evolvingidentity in the modern era. Dr. Jeffrey Coleman’s lecture discussed Spain’s demographic shifts, particularly the profound impact ofmass migration since the 1990s. While Spain has long…

Watson Fellowship: Info session and Virtual Visit from Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23, Watson Fellow

At this event, we will introduce the Watson Fellowship and hear directly from Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23, who will be Zooming in from her world travels as a Watson Fellow. Her project, “Ethical Understandings of Traditional Medicine,” focuses on how traditional medicine is perceived within indigenous and ethnic communities. Engaging with traditional medicine practitioners, knowledge keepers, and community…

How Is It Being a Freshman at Wes? International Student Perspectives

by Oleksandra Volakova Summer break is around the corner, finally bringing warm weather and plenty of pastime. For international students, it is also the time to finally meet with faraway family and friends and observe how their hometown changed over the year of their absence. Over a year, students were getting used to a new…

Finding Community in Kenya

by Luke Chávez Sun has given way to gray clouds as I peer over the roof of a Land Cruiser. What seems like endless herds of zebra and cape buffalo graze right in front of me, framed by the epic plains and acacia trees of Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya. The other students in…

Watson Fellow Livia Cox ’22 Studies Pain

by Miki Lynch What is pain? Why do we experience pain? Is pain perceived the same way across different cultures? To answer these questions one might ask Livia Cox ‘22, a Thomas J. Watson awardee who spent her fellowship year studying the connection between cultural, political, and social definitions of pain. The Watson fellowship is…

Learn and Advocate: The Journey Into Exile Simulation Experience

Are you interested in antiracism? Climate change? Culture? Politics? International Affairs? Health? Communications? Languages? Science? Education? Forced migration is a highly interdisciplinary, international, complex, and rapidly intensifying problem all over the world.  All of us here at Wesleyan have the power to be informed and make an impact! Join us for a Journey Into Exile session to…