Articles

Leaders and activists from around the world gathered at Wellesley on April 6 to grapple with important global questions at the “Renewing Democracy: Women Leading the Way” summit.

Writer Bina Shah ’93 explores how Wellesley has been portrayed in literature—commercial, literary, genre, and the perennial favorite, the campus novel/coming-of-age story.

Do plants “belong” in a particular place? Why are some considered “native” and others “invasive”? Why do they have Latin names? Are they really “male” and “female”? These are some of the wide-ranging questions at the heart of the new book Botany of Empire: Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonialism by Banu Subramaniam, the Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies.

The Blue golf team ranked as high as eighth in the NCAA Division III national rankings during a record-setting spring. Bolstered by a talented class of first-years, including 2024 Wellesley Athletics Rookie of the Year Audrey Wang ’27 (above), the Blue earned team victories at the Jekyll Island Invitational, the two Vassar Invitationals, the Ann S. Batchelder Invitational at Nehoiden Golf Club, and the Jack Leaman Invitational. The Blue ended the year in a tie for second at the Liberty League Championships, narrowly missing this year’s NCAA championship.

In June, Andrew Shennan moved out of an office he had been occupying since 1999. During send-off events in the spring, colleagues remarked on Shennan’s brilliance, kindness, optimism, ability to see arguments from many angles, level-headedness, devotion to the College, and his continuing commitment to neckties in a business-casual era.

Natalie Mendenhall ’17, an audio producer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, participated in the Wellesley in Washington program and credits that experience with preparing her to become the news producer she is today. “I feel really blessed to be working in journalism at this changing time … people will always need the news.”

Stephanie Kacoyanis ’05, with her commanding contralto voice, dramatic acting style, and striking bearing, has won Boston Globe accolades for “scorching the stage” in her operatic portrayals. Reviewers describe her powerful tone as “dark,” “majestic,”...

In November 2023, New York City officials erected a tent city at Floyd Bennett Field, an out-of-use airport facility in Brooklyn. Some 2,000 asylum seekers, all families with children, were settled there to face the winter ahead. “This is my backyard,” says Ariana Hellerman ’03. She decided to help.

In 1911, a fire broke out on an upper floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in lower Manhattan, killing 146 workers, most of them immigrant women. It was one of the worst workplace disasters in United States history. More than 100 years later, Meg Browne ’79 helped establish a memorial to the victims.