Articles

What had begun as a set of urgent repairs to the Margaret Clapp Library grew into a reimagining of how the building might function—not just structurally, but academically and as a more accessible community hub for the campus.

This summer, as Wellesley closes out its 150th anniversary and the United States celebrates its 250th, Katharine Lee Bates 1880 stands as an exemplary scholar, activist, feminist, global citizen, community builder, and person unafraid to be herself.

Ruth J. Simmons’s experience as a Guest Junior at Wellesley helped shape the trajectory of her distinguished career, which has included her roles as the first Black president of Smith College; the first Black president of an Ivy League school, when she took on that role at Brown University; and the first female president of Prairie View A&M University.

Lulu Chow Wang’s experiences in the Jewett Arts Center helped fuel her lifelong passion for the arts. Now, Wang and her husband, Tony, have made a $25 million gift to the College to help enable the renewal of the masterpiece of modernism.

It’s hard to believe that our collective celebration of Wellesley’s 150th has come to an end. The year was full of wonderful opportunities to reconnect with each other and the College, to trumpet the power of our alma mater and its alumnae, and to remind ourselves of our remarkable classmates and all the generations before us who made our own time at Wellesley possible.

My class of 2006 graduated ambitious as all hell, ready to break glass ceilings and find happiness, purpose, and a paycheck. Immediately. But in the 20 years since, we’ve experienced life’s bruises—losses, layoffs, breakups, fertility struggles, and mental health challenges. Some of us are more tired than we were at Wellesley, some have careers that bring us more joy and fulfillment than we could have imagined, and others are struggling with one of the toughest job markets in decades. Many of us are rethinking what matters most to us. Rather than a traditional midlife crisis, some refer to it as a “midlife chrysalis.”

Letters to the Editor, summer 2026

Books and media by the Wellesley community

"Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First-Generation College Success" by Erika M. Kitzmiller ’00 is the culmination of an ambitious research-to-practice partnership that aimed to increase college persistence for students at an urban public high school, most of them first-generation students from low-income families.