The WCAA celebrated significant service with its annual Sed Ministrare Volunteer Awards. We congratulate the 2022 recipients:

Audrey Mandela ’80 has led the Wellesley Club U.K. as president since 2017, having stepped into the position after holding both the secretary and web admin roles. As president, Mandela has expanded the club’s reach to include not only more alums around the U.K., but many others outside the U.S. During the pandemic, Mandela started a monthly “Drop-in Drinks” event on Zoom. Alums connected from all over the U.K. and the world, as club members found themselves in far-flung locations. Mandela has also been instrumental in connecting alums from the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As one of the organizers of this informal group, she helps host quarterly meetings with volunteers who live in areas with smaller alum populations and shares her expertise on engagement. Under Mandela’s leadership, the U.K. club has supported the large number of U.K.-based study-abroad students by personally welcoming them and inviting them to teas with alums in London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. She is an active participant in the Wellesley HIVE, sponsoring internships and participating in the new Mentorship Affinity Pod Program. In the words of a fellow alum, “When Wellesley calls, Audrey always steps up.”

Azizah Yasin ’94 has a passion for making connections with alums, students, and prospective students in her work with the Shared Identity Group Wellesley Alumnae of African Descent (WAAD) and as an admission volunteer. To fill a vacancy, she eagerly became the WAAD New England regional representative, and in 2021, she began serving as the vice president of programming. As regional representative for the geographical area that included the College, she also spent time cultivating relationships with the students of Harambee House. Yasin has embraced the goal of expanding the reach of WAAD as the vice president of programming, hoping to connect with alums of African descent outside the U.S., while also organizing monthly WAAD programs and building relationships with other SIGs. Once an admission interviewer, she has enthusiastically stepped into the new roles the Office of Admission has created, volunteering for online forums and panels. Yasin is now the president of the Pioneer Valley Wellesley Club, having been its Alumnae Admissions Liaison in 2021–22. As her fellow volunteers have said, Yasin has “continually given of herself—her time and her heart—to our beloved Wellesley, its students, and her fellow alumnae.”

Anne Kelly Byerly ’82 is described as having “infectious enthusiasm for the College and our club” by her fellow board members of the Santa Barbara Wellesley Club. Having previously served on the board of the Washington Wellesley Club, Byerly eagerly volunteered to be secretary of her new club when she moved to California in 2014. She followed that with her current role as president of the club, and she has held the position since 2018. As president, Byerly has injected new energy into the club and has grown engagement in particular by reaching out individually to new members who have moved to the area. She continued to keep her club connected during the pandemic with book club events, cooking classes, and a holiday party with live music, all done virtually. Byerly is also a member of the Wellesley Business Leadership Council and serves as its membership chair. Byerly has served twice as her class’s reunion chair, most recently in 2022 for its 40th reunion, when she was also elected class vice president. Through each of these roles, Byerly has shown her extraordinary commitment to Wellesley.