News

Neither Dan Chiasson nor his English 120 students realized how telling their discussion would be on the morning of April 14. Chiasson, an award-winning poet and critic, looked deceptively casual—as he always does—when he entered room 126 in Founders Hall.

W hen Lisa Shaw Brucken ’89 was 32, she and her partner decided to marry, even though same-sex marriage wasn’t legal at the time. “We wanted to be a family and have the same last...

Thunk! Julie Moir Messervy ’73, out for a walk in the springtime woods in southern Vermont, pitches a fallen branch into the underbrush beside the trail. And another one—thunk! “I can’t help myself,” laughs Messervy, whose vocation is shaping landscapes into places of beauty and inspiration.

An environmentalist and pioneer of the organic and local food movements. A behavioral scientist and public-health advocate. The recipients of the 2014 Alumnae Achievement Awards, Wellesley’s highest honor, share insights and discuss the twists and turns of their lives.

In the last few years, the College community has been dreaming big about the right spaces for living, learning, and teaching at Wellesley. Now, the plan for the biggest transformation to the campus since the Great Fire has been unveiled.

Anisa Mehdi ’78—an Emmy award-winning journalist—was familiar with the rituals of the Hajj. But her recent trip to Saudi Arabia yielded fresh lessons from an ancient woman’s heroism.