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Gray skies delivered rain on May 20, yet campus was awash in shades of yellow as commencement attendees and seniors alike dressed for the yellow class of 2023’s big day.

Early in 2023, in between completing the requirements for their math major and training with Wellesley’s crew team, Charlie (a pseudonym) considered what they wanted to accomplish before graduating in May.

Zaria Bunn ’23, a theatre studies major and women’s and gender studies minor from Asheville, N.C., won the 128th annual Hooprolling race by a comfortable margin.

When Bilqis Ayeni ’23 first heard about the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program for young people in Africa, it sounded so unbelievable, she actually laughed. As a student in Nigeria hoping to attend college abroad, she learned about the scholarship in an advertisement her mother sent her.

Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall auditorium was packed as acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami gave the annual Cornille Lecture. Murakami was the Mary L. Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities for the spring semester. His presence on campus generated great excitement: The first night tickets were available, 430 Wellesley students registered for his lecture.

Ann Velenchik, associate professor of economics and writing, drew on her own experience as a working mother to teach a first-year writing class, Having It All? The Problem of Women and Work. In it, her students grappled with questions about the economic and social roles they will face as they move into the world and decide how, when, or whether to start families of their own.

“When you start to recognize plants, I think you really start to feel like there’s family around,” says Jenn Yang ’12, associate director of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and Friends of Botanic Gardens. “You start to feel like a place is home.”

Wellesley’s third TEDx featured alum, student, and faculty speakers, including Kellie Carter Jackson, Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies (above), whose talk, “Why Black Abolitionists Matter.” focused on the overlooked role of Black abolitionists in the Civil War era.

If you’ve heard of the old May Day festivities, it’s probably because Hooprolling and, later, Stepsinging, took place as part of the celebrations. But over the decades, May Day fell away, along with one of its quirkier traditions: scrubbing campus statues and steps.