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Recently, someone asked me, “Where is Wellesley in your story?” I stopped for a moment before I answered, then replied, “Wellesley is everywhere in my story.”

Jeri Lynne Johnson ’93, a conductor and the founding artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, knew what she wanted to be from age 7, when she attended her first orchestra concert.

At the funeral of Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59 at the Washington National Cathedral in late April, while the war in Ukraine raged on, she was celebrated for championing democracy—and breaking one of the world’s hardest glass ceilings.

A lesser-known phenomenon of the college experience is the “Dog Drop”—when childhood pets start to drop dead. But comfort can be found in unexpected places.

The People’s Painter , a picture book for young readers by Cynthia Yenkin Levinson ’67, tells the story of artist Ben Shahn and how he grew into his purpose of depicting injustice and activism.

The Plum Trees by Victoria Shorr ’71, a beautiful and painful novel, is a tribute to those who survived and those who died in the death camps of the Holocaust. It is nothing like current events, yet it feels particular powerful at this moment in history.

Barbara Peterson Ruhlman ’54 passed away on Jan. 2. Her visionary gift to Wellesley, the Barbara Ruhlman Fund for Interdisciplinary Studies, acknowledged and supported the increasing interest of students and faculty in collaborating across disciplines. Since 1997, the fund has sponsored the Ruhlman Conference, an annual spring event that celebrates student scholarly and creative achievement.

With sadness, the Art Department announces the deaths of our beloved colleagues Lilian Armstrong ’58, Mildred Lane Kemper Professor of Art emerita, and Peter J. Fergusson, Theodora L. and Stanley H. Feldberg Professor of Art emeritus. For more than 40 years, their gift for making others feel welcome made them the collegial center of the Art Department. But for generations of Wellesley students, they will be especially remembered as dedicated and inspiring teachers.

“Everything I am now is due to Wellesley.” So said Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59, who died of cancer on March 23 at the age of 84. She is remembered for her career as a diplomat and her service as the U.S. ambassador to the UN and as the country’s first female secretary of state. She will also be remembered for her role as an educator and a fierce advocate for women.