College Road

Record-Breaking Relay

Wellesley’s swimming and diving team gave a standout performance in the 200 medley relay on day three of the NCAA Division III Championships at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis. Tracey Liu ’26, Kavita Sekhon ’26 (pictured above), Lucy Choe ’29, and Alexis Kung ’29 finished third in the consolation final (11th overall) with a time of 1:42.05. The result earned them Second Team All-America honors and set a new program record, surpassing the mark established in February at the NEWMAC Championships.

A Diplomat Returns

Michele Sison ’81 (pictured), U.S. Career Ambassador and director of the global office of the International Organization for Migration, returned to Wellesley in January as the Albright Institute’s 2026 Mary Jane Durnford Lewis ’59 Distinguished Visiting Professor. Sison, who has served as U.S. ambassador to nations including Haiti, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates, addressed the Albright Fellows and shared that she, too, faced uncertainty as a senior.

Over several days, Sison discussed her extensive diplomatic career and life experiences, including an in-person conversation with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69. She encouraged the cohort to pursue diverse courses, emphasizing that “everything gets woven into the tissue, the fabric, of your life experience.” Sison also listened to the Albright Fellows present on eight global issues and provided feedback on their ideas and strategies. She assured them that their Wellesley foundation ensures they will “soar and thrive and have resilience,” and that campus friendships will sustain them through future challenges.

AI is Everyone’s Business

At the AI for Social Impact workshop on campus in January, Jen Pollard, Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Executive Director and associate provost for Career Education, told students, “You all will be working in fields that AI will impact.”

The workshop was part of the Career Education’s annual Upskill series, which offers sessions in artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, journalism, investment banking, medicine, and software development.

Wellesley wants to prepare students to become leaders who can fine-tune AI, make it more accurate, and imagine ways to use it for a powerful positive impact, Pollard said. They need to understand the technology’s history, how it’s being deployed, and how it can be better. To do that, she said, they need to be in the rooms where decisions about AI use are being made.

Pinned Up

New must-have accessories are trending on campus this academic year: limited-edition enamel pins in honor of Wellesley’s 150th anniversary. Liz Hoveland, the College’s social media manager, conceived the initiative, which offered a monthly free pin for students during the sesquicentennial year.

The pins, which feature iconic archival imagery like the lamppost, Wellesley magazine covers, and the three keys to the College, have been met with an “incredible” response from students, Hoveland says. To snag a pin, students participated in appreciation-driven tasks, including writing thank-you cards to alumnae volunteers and “love letters” to Wellesley, fostering interdepartmental collaboration and a sense of gratitude. “I like that this is a physical piece of media, and I also like that we have to handwrite something to get it. The pins signify community,” one senior commented.

Lamppost pins will also be available on campus for alumnae attending reunion this year. And who knows? Maybe they’ll become a new tradition.

“When we think about what it means to be an educated person, I want to think about our teaching that every human being, in return for the gift of being here on this beautiful planet, was given a gift to bring here. Every one of us. But we also have the responsibility to give it.”

—Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist, bestselling author, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, speaking at Wellesley in March