Wellesley celebrates Latinx Month in April
In April, Wellesley celebrated Latinx Month with performances, lectures and workshops for community members to understand and learn about Latinx culture and history. On April 6, Wellesley students prepared for and performed in the Latinx culture show “The Dream State,” which featured students and outside performers from Mariachi de Güelsi and Peruvian dancers from the Veronica Robles Cultural Center. On April 20, Arian Brown, a poet who identifies as a black Mexican American, gave a spoken-word performance that included the poem “Dear White Girls in my Spanish Class.” The keynote speaker for the month was Cynthia Lopez, former New York City film commissioner and prominent in the film industry, who discussed the role of Latinx people in social media and her strengths as one of the few Latina women in her industry. Other communities on campus also became involved in these events, including the Davis Museum, which co-hosted a tour and lecture by James Oles, senior lecturer in art. The Davis, along with Mezcla, the Wilson Lecture and the Latinx Advisors Office, hosted this event, where Oles discussed the Davis’s Latin American art collection. Other events included a talk given by Lorella Praeli, a Latinx alumnae network panel, and a podcast panel. All of these events were coordinated by the Latinx Month Planning Committee, which includes professors, staff and students.
Annual Stanford Calderwood Prizes in Public Writing announced
Students in the Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing program have a chance every year to be awarded for their exceptional pieces. This year, Wellesley has announced the 2018 winners as current student Alexandra Beem ’18, and two alumnae, Grace Chow ’17 and Brianna Ruffin ’17. The program, which teaches students to translate jargon and complex ideas into writing for broader audiences, is offered throughout the academic disciplines. Beem, whose work looked at the long-term effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART), took a Calderwood Seminar in the sciences, while Ruffin took one in the humanities and Chow in the social sciences.
Wellesley student wins Truman Scholarship
Emily Moss ’19 has won a Truman Scholarship, a $30,000 scholarship created to support graduate school and professional training for the next generation of public service leaders. She is one of 59 students nationwide to receive the award this year. Moss plans to use the scholarship to pursue a career in urban policy focusing on affordable housing. She has focused her research on economic security and urban policy throughout Massachusetts, including Wellesley, MIT, the New Economy Project, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Boston City Council. Moss will receive her award at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum on May 27.
Wellesley’s Blended Learning Initiative invites 30 speakers to campus
A two-day symposium on April 6 and 7 celebrated 30 speakers from Wellesley College and across the country in order to mark four years of digital innovation at the College. The symposium, titled “Shifting (the) Boundaries: Blended Learning, Digital Humanities, and the Liberal Arts,” featured panel discussions about topics such as an online Italian course, a virtual reality evolutionary anatomy lab and a summer course in Iceland that integrated digital tools with field research. The Blending Learning Initiative was founded in fall 2014 and has been incorporated into more than 50 courses in the humanities and social sciences. Evelina Gužauskytė, faculty director, and David O’Steen, associate director, worked with the Provost’s office and Library and Technology staff to launch the initiative with an $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
