Features

  • Return Trip

    Summer 2024

    Feature Story

    Who, in their postmenopausal right mind, would choose to serve once more in a role they had held fresh out of college? Especially when the position is located on the other side of the planet?

  • Jocelyn Benson ’99, secretary of state of Michigan, spoke about protecting voters’ rights.

    Citizenship in Action

    Summer 2024

    Feature Story

    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.

  • Wellesley on the Page

    Summer 2024

    Feature Story

    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.

Also in this Issue

  • Pages & Playlists

    Summer 2024

    New Works

    Recent publications by Wellesley authors

  • In Brief

    Summer 2024

    New Works

    Thumbnail reviews of new publications from the Wellesley community

  • An image of the red. white, and blue all-type cover of Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and In Our Lives

    Civics as Self-Care

    Summer 2024

    New Works

    Democracy in Retrograde by Emily Amick ’07 and Sami Sage is an unusually practical book based on a simple premise: Civics isn’t a theoretical idea. It pervades every aspect of our lives and can offer hope as well as frustration.

  • New Alumnae Association Board Members

    Summer 2024

    WCAA

    Introducing six new Wellesley College Alumnae Association Board Members.

  • Sed Ministrare Volunteer Awards 2024

    Summer 2024

    WCAA

    The 2024 Sed Ministrare Volunteer Awards recipients are Sam Tackeff ’08, Gretchen Rous Besser ’49, and Jessica Urban ’06.

  • Photo of Laura Wood Cantopher ’84, former WCAA president; Debra DeVaughn ’74; and Kathryn Harvey Mackintosh ’03, executive director of the WCAA.

    2024 Syrena Stackpole Award

    Summer 2024

    WCAA

    Given annually at reunion by the WCAA, the Syrena Stackpole Award honors dedicated service and exceptional commitment to Wellesley. The 2024 recipient is Debra DeVaughn ’74.

  • Portrait of Stephanie Hsieh

    Hsieh ’89 Assumes WCAA Presidency

    Summer 2024

    WCAA

    Stephanie Hsieh ’89, the new president of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, jokes that her path to the College was “the happiest accident of my life.”

  • A photo portrait of Banu Subramaniam, Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies

    A More Expansive Botany

    Summer 2024

    Window on Wellesley

    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.

  • 2024 Wellesley Athletics Rookie of the Year Audrey Wang ’27

    College Road

    Summer 2024

    Window on Wellesley

    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.

  • A photo of a graduate's mortar board decorated with roses

    Commencement 2024

    Summer 2024

    Window on Wellesley

    The 571 members of the red class of 2024, most of whom arrived on campus as first-years during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, graduated on May 17. Student speaker Haley Lee-Burke ’24 delivered an address in the form of a letter to the College, inspired by the class’s first-year orientation theme, “Love, Wellesley.” “Thank you for giving me a space to learn, cry, and laugh my heart out,” Lee-Burke said.

  • A photo portrait of Andrew Shennan, provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College, who recently retired

    The View from Green Hall

    Summer 2024

    Window on Wellesley

    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.

  • A photo of Emma Feldman ’24, this year’s Hooprolling champion, being carried toward Lake Waban.

    Hoop, Hoop, Hooray!

    Summer 2024

    Window on Wellesley

    Emma Feldman ’24 (being carried, left) is this year’s Hooprolling champion. A neuroscience major and art history minor, after graduation she headed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to do clinical research.

  • A Fight for Democracy, a Historic Summit

    Summer 2024

    From the President

    This spring, Wellesley College took a stand in support of democracy and of renewing the civic purpose of higher education.

  • A photo portrait of Natalie Mendenhall '17

    In the News

    Summer 2024

    Class Notes: Profile

    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.”

  • A photo portrait of Stephanie Kacoyanis '05

    Cutting-Edge Contralto

    Summer 2024

    Class Notes: Profile

    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,”...

  • A photo portrait of Ariana Hellerman '03

    Solidarity on the Q35 Bus

    Summer 2024

    Class Notes: Profile

    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.

  • A photo portrait of Meg Browne '79

    A Memorial at Long Last

    Summer 2024

    Class Notes: Profile

    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.

  • Alumnae Memorials

    Summer 2024

    Class Notes: In Memoriam

    Tributes to Wellesley alumnae by family and friends

  • A photo of a black lab sitting on a sofa by a curtained window

    Picture Ahead

    Summer 2024

    Endnote

    At 24, it seems like a lot of overt “Picture Ahead!” signs are right behind me. Like a road trip, college has a beginning and a destination. After has a beginning, too. But then it’s a series of vaguely defined experiences that make me feel like a tourist taking a photo I could get a better version of on a postcard.

  • Letters to the Editor

    Summer 2024

    Letters to the Editor

    AI and Human Rights I was glad to read the recent article on AI (“ AI’s Unanswered Questions ,” winter 2024) and to know that students are gaining practical experience analyzing and building AI tools...

  • Photograph of a copy of Wellesley News from Sept. 27, 1995. Headlines read "Wellesley women discuss their experiences at Beijing" and "College community responds to proposed changes to curriculum."

    From the Editor

    Summer 2024

    From the Editor

    Since I graduated 25 years ago, some of the details of being a student have changed (cell phones instead of landlines, Sidechat instead of Public, Lulu instead of Schneider), but the intrinsic Wellesleyness of Wellesley has not changed.