I feel like my main advice would just be to be a person and talk to your professors, because they’re also people, and they have also been through the struggles of being a student. Going to your professors and talking to them, and just being honest from a place of I’m struggling with this, or…
Van Vleck Observatory Opens its Doors for Community Outreach
For decades, the University’s Astronomy Department has hosted public outreach programs at its home, the Van Vleck Observatory — that is, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the observatory to close its doors. This fall, new efforts by students, faculty, and community members have led to the resurrection of public programming in full swing. The observatory…
Renee Sher, ’07, Assistant Professor of Physics, Promotes Girls in Science
Growing up in Taiwan, Professor Meng-ju (Renee) Sher felt that she had two career paths to choose from: to be a doctor or to be an engineer. At present day, she is neither. Instead, she is a scientist researching renewable energy materials, and a tenure-track faculty member of Wesleyan’s Physics and College of Integrated Science…
Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ‘23 talks Traditional Medicine, Indigenous Knowledge, and Decolonizing Western Science
Jocelyn Velasquez Baez entered Wesleyan a math major on the pre-med track. But when multivariable calculus didn’t pique her interest, she started to wonder if she had chosen the wrong path. It wasn’t until she landed in a science in society (SISP) course, that she started enjoying what she was learning. Her courses centered on…
Professor Ellen Thomas Talks Winning Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Female Representation in the Sciences, and Fossil Restoration on Campus
Ellen Thomas was originally told at her alma mater, the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, that women couldn’t study earth sciences. But she refused to let this stop her. At Wesleyan, Thomas is the Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History and Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences,…