As stated by current ASU President Cameron Kang ’26, the idea for the event was born out of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training meeting in 2022 when Atalia Navarro ’25, the co-Inclusion chair for that year, proposed a combined showcase of cultures in an effort to facilitate greater inter-organizational collaboration in the larger Asian context. Since then, the event has seen widespread engagement on campus.

This year’s event took place on Oct. 18 on the ground floor of the Houghton Chapel. The room was lined with pop-up booths featuring delicacies and artifacts from a range of Asian countries and saw participation from several cultural organizations on campus. At the same time, on-campus dance and music ensembles such as Wellesley Asian Dance Organization (WADO) and Aiko put up elaborate performances showcasing artforms from various regions of the Asian continent on the Chapel’s first floor. 

Doors opened at 7:00 p.m. when large groups of students showed up to view the performances before making their way downstairs to grab a plate of delicious food or buy a pair of earrings from one of the booths. The room was brimming with laughter and excitement as organizational vendors worked hard to meet the seemingly unending demand for food. Some organizations went a step further in engaging students by organizing fun activities such as the Pakistani Students Association’s initiative of offering to get your name handwritten in Urdu. 

In the years to come, members of ASU envision A Night in Asia being a yearly occurrence that is attended by greater numbers than ever before. Riya Bhattacharjee ’26, who is currently serving as ASU’s Inclusion Chair, plans to have underclassmen be more involved in the organization for the event going forward as a means of leaving behind a legacy of sorts. A crucial part of achieving this is to establish institutional memory by “be[ing] intentional about communicating to underclassmen about what our goals are for this event and why that matters.” Bhattacharjee has also been in talks with previous members of the ASU e-board to expand the event beyond its current scope to “pair up [different orgs] with each other to potentially do a collaborative booth of sorts.” 

With the recent turnout of A Night in Asia, Kang hopes for ASU to “transition from simply being a social org to something a little more meaningful.” ASU’s recent efforts have been geared towards ensuring that the e-board reflects a lot more Asian cultures by being more mindful about recruiting new members who are equally passionate about diversity and inclusion. 

“ … even in interviews, [we] spend a lot of time asking people what their aspirations are for the club and how that relates to our  goals of diversity and inclusion. A lot of the seniors have been working hard towards that. That’s the legacy that they would be leaving behind,” Kang said. 

If you or anyone you know wants to have an on-campus org featured, email us at dk103@wellesley.edu or pr104@wellesley.edu! 

Image credit: @wellesley_psa on Instagram

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Phoebe Rebhorn and Diya Khanna

Lyla Ma ’28 is a student from Shanghai, China. Ma had never experienced a democratic election in her home country, so she assumed she could watch the election in a passive manner. She realized quickly it was much more than that to her. 

“The result was heartbreaking to me; not only does it greatly affect my immigration prospect, which is gloomy at this point, but it also shows that a large part of the world is growing more conservative. I am indeed unsure and scared of what is to come, but I find comfort knowing that I have siblings here with me,” Ma said.

While most international students are only citizens of their home country, some Wellesley international students are dual US citizens. Meera Baswan ’27 is a dual Canada-US citizen, and this was her first time voting in US elections. As she reflected on the election results, she was constantly struck by the implications of a Trump presidency for Canada-US relations and the difference between the direction American and Canadian political systems are heading in. 

“Given Trump’s infamous protectionist policies, I’m concerned about how his presidency will affect trade relations between Canada and the US, especially with his plan to impose 10% tariffs on all imported goods,” Baswan explained. “The policy … would both increase the prices of goods here in the US and negatively hit the Canadian economy, which relies on the US as its biggest trade partner.” 

She’s also worried about the social impacts of an increasing ideological shift to the right in America, with more radical right-wing rhetoric from Republicans and even a shift to the center from the Democrats this election season. Baswan compared this to Canada’s political system which also has a right-wing party (Conservatives) and left-wing party (Liberals), but the Conservative party in Canada is arguably closer in social issues to the Democrats than the Republicans. The Conservatives, while fiscally conservative, overall have a generally liberal stance on abortion rights, immigration and diversity. In contrast, the Republican party in America has espoused extreme rhetoric on restricting abortion access and attacking immigrant groups in the United States, often using inflammatory language along the way. 

“Throughout the next four years, we will see how Trump’s presidency will affect Canada-US relations for the better or worse, and the growing split between the Canadian political system and the US political system,” Baswan concluded. 

For Sanika Merchant ’25, who has grown up in India as a US citizen, this election season was particularly significant. It was her first time being physically present in the US during election season, and it helped her realize the level of responsibility and influence she has as a voter.

“In addition, I made great efforts to properly familiarize myself with the different candidates’ policies and be as involved in election-related events as possible,” Merchant pointed out.

For Merchant, election night was “emotional” and “overwhelming” following her expectation that it would be a close race. When the results were announced, it compelled her to think about the socio-political implications for both herself as well as close friends and family both in the United States and abroad. Expanding on these sentiments, Merchant described being “cognizant of potential policy changes in this term that could impact her family’s ability to come to the US from India in the long-term.” 

As an Economics major, Merchant also pointed out potential economic implications of the new US presidency. “Policy changes, such as immigration and international tariffs, could pose serious implications for inflation in the US. Given our recovery from sky-high inflation during the pandemic, I think this is an important matter to consider.” 

For many Wellesley students, the recent Presidential election brought with it a myriad of emotions and prompted a rethinking of the social, political and economic impact that policies in the upcoming term would bring about. As Wellesley moves on post-election, it remains to be seen what the implications of a Trump presidency will have on policy and rhetoric that affects them, and how they might make their voices heard — both on campus and as students in the changing US political landscape.

Image credit: AP Photo, Jeffrey Phelps

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Phoebe Rebhorn and Diya Khanna

The planning for the talk began back in February of this year when Shih envisioned a potential collaboration and contacted SEASA Presidents Moji Niyamanusorn ’25 and Van An Trinh ’24 to host the event collectively. 

Speaking of the motivation behind organizing the talk, Niyamanusorn expressed her vision for this year’s API month which was focused on highlighting minority Asian voices and why that is important in the larger context of celebrating the work of Asian artists. 

“​​I really liked the theme of [Phingbodhipakkiya’s] artwork about ‘where we belong.’ Especially for this API month, we tried to highlight the minorities in the Asian community. I’m Thai as well and when I first came to [the US], a lot of people told me that you actually don’t look like you’re Thai, you look like you’re Japanese or Korean, or Chinese. And I had to tell them that I am not,” Niyamanusorn commented. 

Niyamanusorn further elaborated on why Phingbodhipakkiya’s story was crucial to enhancing the visibility of Thai artists and for kicking off this year’s API month. 

“Having Amanda here felt really nice because usually when we think of Asians we usually just think of the three East Asian [groups] … the media tries to portray it’s either Japanese or Chinese or sometimes Korean, but other than that, there is not really much. So having Amanda here really helps increase the visibility of the minorities who are often forgotten,” Niyamanusorn said. 

The talk was also instrumental in spreading the word about SEASA on the Wellesley campus which often gets lost amongst the wide range of Asian-spanning organizations that exist on campus. 

“An event as large-scale as this one helps to get the name of SEASA out too, because as compared to other Asian orgs we are considered to be one of the smaller ones. Sometimes it makes me really sad when I meet another Southeast Asian person on campus and they tell me they never knew that SEASA even existed,” Niyamanusorn said. 

“If you notice [Phingbodhipakkiya’s] Instagram handle is ‘a long last name’ and I really relate to that because my last name is also very long like hers. We had a talk about how I am sometimes ashamed when someone struggles to pronounce my last name and I try to tell them that they can just call me Moji N and they don’t have to try to pronounce the whole thing. But I know that we shouldn’t be made to feel that way,” Niyamanusorn commented. 

The talk began with Phingbodhipakkiya narrating her experience of growing up in the United States as the daughter of Thai and Indonesian immigrants. Phingbodhipakkiya, who was a neuroscience major back in college, reflected on the process of transitioning to the arts from a conventional STEM discipline and having this conversation with their parents to whom this came as a surprise. This was followed by an overview of some of Phingbodhipakkiya’s most notable works which span sculpture, large-scale murals, installation and public art campaigns. 

Phingbodhipakkiya spoke of an experience that was transformative in its impact on them choosing the themes that they focus their artwork on. More specifically, they touched upon how the Southeast Asian community is, more often than not, expected to not ‘take up space.’ This further underscores the importance of having their artwork displayed in locations where people from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds gather. Phingbodhipakkiya’s work received  such recognition when their public art campaign of 2020 titled “I Still Believe in our City” depicting men and women of Asian and Pacific Islander descent was displayed on billboards across New York City. 

Phingbodhipakkiya concluded by narrating their experience of traveling to Thailand and learning first-hand the traditional weaving practices that have been passed down through generations of Thai women or “aunties.” To Phingbodhipakkiya, learning from these women was also an opportunity to reconnect with their cultural roots. 

In the years to come, Niyamanusorn wishes for API month celebrations to continue to be all-encompassing of the diversity within the larger Asian community and for SEASA to play an integral role in amplifying Southeast Asian voices both on and off campus. 

Following 2020, this year’s Coffeehouse was the first to be held at Punch’s Alley. In previous years, BSA has held the Coffeehouse at locations such as El Table, Tishman Commons and Punch’s Alley among others. This year, the event was hosted in collaboration with Cafe Hoop. Historically, BSA has frequently collaborated with cultural organizations both on and off campus. In particular, BSA makes a conscious effort to support student-run cooperatives on the Wellesley campus — most of whom include students from the BSA community. 

Every year, the event is organized in honor of International Mother Language Day which is celebrated on Feb. 21 following its recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1999. It is also  to recognize the Bengali Language Movement which began in 1948 in erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Reflecting on the inspiration behind the event, BSA Co-President Tazrean Hossain ’24 explained why the Bengali Language Movement is significant not just for the Bengali community but for all those who have historically been the subject of colonialist policies that suppressed their right to speak their own language. 

“For us, it’s a day that honors our martyrs and the people who were brutally murdered for protesting to speak the Bengali language because this was back when Bangladesh was still a part of Pakistan and Pakistan was trying to enforce an Urdu speaking nation,” Hossain explained. 

Hossain further commented on the importance of celebrating one’s language and the role played by an open mic in fostering an inclusive atmosphere that enables individuals to do just that. 

“Part of the reason [we host Coffeehouse] is because we really want to celebrate the linguistic and cultural diversity at Wellesley. And what’s happened to us as Bengali people,” Hossain said. “It’s something that applies to everyone because everyone has a mother tongue. Everyone has a relationship to language. We want to celebrate that and invite the whole community to do so. Having it as an open mic event … makes it more inclusive and welcoming,” Hossain added. 

The BSA executive board began planning for the highly anticipated event back in December of 2023. Speaking of the efforts that went into organizing the event, Co-President Samihath Zaman ’25 shed light on the organization’s collective efforts to bring together student performers while coordinating other essential logistics. 

“We started reaching out to performers at the beginning of the semester,” Zaman said. “The part that was challenging was that we usually don’t require security but following some recent changes in rules, we had to navigate having security [at the pub].” 

The event began with a poem that illuminated the significance of the Bengali Language Movement. As the event progressed, performances varied in their presentational format, ranging from poem recitations to musical duets. The performances also spanned a wide range of languages including but not limited to Bengali, Spanish, Korean, Fijian, Serbian and Chinese. 

While each performance conveyed a unique message, what was common to them all was their ability to unearth lost histories and celebrate the beauty lying within all languages. Many of the performances focused on themes such as the struggle of the Bengali people to speak the Bengali language in erstwhile East Pakistan. As an extension of these underlying themes, the event saw performances that emphasized the collective struggles of communities across the globe whose languages were historically suppressed as a result of colonialist practices. Hossain commented on how the struggle for liberation unintentionally became an underlying theme at the event and its connection to today’s global context. 

“[While] it wasn’t intentional, it makes sense that one of the things that came up in all the performances is that right now, we’re all fighting for liberation and its connection to the struggles that we’re seeing right now in Palestine,” Hossain said. “I think a lot of people are feeling really frustrated about what’s happening in the world right now and it’s clear how that’s affected all of us. And so, while that wasn’t intentional, I’m really glad that that was a theme.” 

Towards the closing of the event, attendees witnessed a cover of two Bengali songs performed by Co-Presidents Zaman and Hossain. Following this, the floor was opened to audience members who were invited to perform a piece of their liking which saw large participation. Following the event’s conclusion, attendees were directed to Cafe Hoop after providing them with Hoop tabs as an incentive to support the student-run co-op. 

Looking back at her last Coffeehouse event as BSA Co-President, Hossain, who is set to graduate this summer, commented on what she hopes for future BSA Coffeehouse events and how she would like to see the tradition being kept alive. 

“I really like how [Coffeehouse] is organized. I like that it’s an intimate space and that it’s cozy and wholesome. [In the future] I want this to be an event that we have more attendance at but I don’t want the size of the event to make it lose that energy,” Hossain said. “I want the space to remain the way it is now and I have full faith that it’s going to continue to be an amazing event in future years.”

Franklin is a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the Africana Studies department at Wellesley. Having completed her PhD in economics at the University of Westminster, Franklin serves as a fellow for the Governance and Local Development Institute at the University of Gothenburg and is a recipient of the 2022-2023 AAUW Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship at Yale University. Franklin’s interdisciplinary research focuses on how low-income countries address public health emergencies.

The talk, hosted at Harambee House, began with an overview of the global evolution of Black History Month by Franklin. The overarching theme was an emphasis on Black scholarship and celebrating Black voices. Reflecting on her time pursuing a PhD in the United Kingdom and her experiences with higher educational institutions in the United States, Franklin noted the increasingly crucial role of academia in advancing a greater understanding of Black history.

Furthermore, Franklin commented on the skewed recognition of Black scholarship across continents. She further explained the significance of historic events like the Black Lives Movement in transforming such trends.

“[When] I was there, there were 24 Black female professors in the entire UK. Compare that to Columbia University … they had 30 Black female professors just at that one university. So, one Predominantly White Institution had more Black female professors than the entire United Kingdom,” Franklin said. “Now, after 2020, with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives movement becoming transnational, I noticed that Black scholars were finally being recognized for their contributions and were being promoted.”

Franklin shed light on the contributions of the Black community that helped shape US history as we know it today and how Black perspectives are often excluded from the larger conversation on US history. In doing so, Franklin discussed the tendency of higher educational institutions to treat African American history and US history as mutually exclusive to each other. Franklin further commented on how she would approach teaching US history if given an opportunity to do so.

“When I was an undergrad, you had [courses like] US History One, US History Two. And then, separately, you have Black history … looking at how Black Americans contributed to the shaping and founding of the US, it should be more integrated than that,” Franklin said. “But as someone who’s been a student in higher education, and now working in higher education, I also see more of the politics behind that. We still have generations and generations of scholars who were just not trained in that way. Speaking from my experience, as a history student … I was not trained to see these perspectives as mainstream.”

In discussing next steps as part of an antiracist, decolonial strategy, Franklin reinstated the importance of unlearning attitudes and practices that continue to be taught as part of courses on economic and political development today.

“We cannot have good policymaking if we cannot acknowledge the starting point that European countries had, and Black and Brown countries did not,” Franklin said.

Franklin concluded by urging individuals to reflect on what it means to celebrate US independence and the role that Black History Month plays in educating today’s youth on the achievements of the Black community.  

“When we speak of American Independence on July 4, 1776, ask yourself – who became independent on July 4, 1776? Black Americans did not. Indigenous people did not. Many other communities did not,” Franklin commented.

On Feb. 1, the first FaculTEA event of the semester was led by computer science Professor Jordan Tynes. Organized by a group of resident assistants (RAs), the event took place in the Shafer residence hall. 

The event was organized by Isabel Orozco Piedrahíta ’24, the RA of Shafer Hall’s third floor. Piedrahíta had taken a course with Tynes previously and saw the event as the perfect opportunity for students to gain insight into the game design space. 

“I think it is a really cool opportunity for people to come outside of the classroom setting and connect with professors on a more human level. It’s in the dorms. It’s beyond teaching hours. It’s very casual,” said Piedrahíta. “I think the opportunity for students to have those moments with professors is really special.” 

Tynes recalled how the efforts of the organizers made him feel welcome and comfortable in delivering the talk.  

“I immediately had a chair to sit in and people were asking me questions and it was very well attended,” said Tynes. “It was just very comfortable. There was a short introduction and I spoke for some 30 minutes straight before they started asking questions. So a lot of my expectations were very well met.” 

During the event, Tynes shared his passion for game design and discussed his academic and career trajectory leading up to his time at the College. He began by introducing himself and speaking about his time as an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. When the computer science track did not work out as he had planned, Tynes discovered his “creative vision” within the art department of the university. 

“I discovered that the art department had a pretty robust digital media focus . . .  so I started by taking a class called electronic intermediate, and I learned that I could code creatively,” said Tynes. “I sort of saw the code as a reflection of my creative process. It probably would not have earned an A in any sort of code checker algorithm for grading. But, for me, it showed a thought process that I thought could be explored in other ways.” 

After earning a degree in studio art with a minor in the history of art and visual culture, Tynes enrolled in graduate school at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and developed an interest in theater as well as freelance videography. 

“I started writing different codes for processing video and doing really interesting things with manipulation of the video as a medium,” said Tynes. “Professionally, I became really involved in public access television … I also started a studio space in Dorchester, with seven other people [now] called the Dorchester Art Project, after which I got an interview at Wellesley.” 

When asked about his experience, Tynes acknowledged that the interactive conversation in the setting of the common room was unique. 

“I saw [the event] as an invitation into [students’] home, and I was being very respectful of what it means to invite somebody into your home,” Tynes said. 

Reflecting on the FaculTEAs series, Tynes emphasized the importance of conversing beyond the classroom. 

“I would be interested in more events like this [one]. Breaking down the hierarchy in the classroom is important,” said Tynes. “I think that there is this mentorship aspect in the relationship between a professor and a student. But … we’re all also human beings.”  

  Piedrahíta shared similar enthusiasm and was happy to see the community come together for the semester’s first FaculTEA. 

“I think it went really well the first time. Everyone left feeling really fulfilled, and happy … It was really nice,” Piedrahíta said.

In addition to their work as a Lab Manager in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, as Teaching Fellow for CS 111 this year,  Angel Cooper ’22 supports students during CS 111 lectures and office hours, coordinates tutoring hours for the course and supports the course’s team of student tutors, who provide students support during their office hours. Cooper hopes that the team of tutors can offer CS 111 students encouragement and support.

“I definitely do my best to encourage students … and to hear out their concerns … and the thoughts they have about the CS program and about the class. I care about helping students get off on the right foot with Computer Science so they can build themselves a strong foundation to succeed in future CS courses and come out of CS 111 feeling confident … in their own ability in Computer Science, especially because Computer Science is … such a male-dominated field. And it’s a very white, cis, male field,” Cooper said. 

Both Eni Mustafaraj, associate professor, and Peter Mawhorter, instructor in Computer Science Laboratory, have worked to facilitate changes to the course this year. Mustafaraj teaches the course’s two lecture sections, and Mawhorter is the instructor for its five lab sections. 

According to Mawhorter, over the past five years, changes to the course have included a shift to automated grading for course assignments and a version of mastery grading for quizzes. With automated grading, instructors do not grade most course assignments in the course. 

“We’re giving you that human feedback on other things we’re asking you to do,” Mawhorter said. “[Automated grading] has distinct disadvantages because there’s no human looking at your code,” he later acknowledged. 

Mawhorter designed the computer programming used for this automated grading, aiming to make the program as efficient and fair as possible. According to Mawhorter, automated grading has generated feedback for students more quickly, a benefit in a fast-paced class, and has allowed professors more time to grade other quizzes and assignments.

To compensate for some possible errors in automated grading, Mawhorter explained that he tries to monitor the grading system, and the course now includes an opportunity for students to revise their assignments based on the automated feedback. 

“The idea is, if you forget a comma and you get a zero because of that, that’s not an accurate grade,” Mawhorter said, explaining the policy allowing for revisions and adding that he continues to update the grading system. 

The course’s quiz policy has also been designed to help students learn from feedback and improve their performance. After an ungraded practice quiz is reviewed in class, students take a required, graded quiz, and a week later, have the opportunity to take a third similar graded quiz. The highest score between the two graded quizzes is the recorded score. 

“We are … actually giving [students] points based on what they know at the end of that process, not based on how they perform at each step along the way,” Mawhorter said. 

The course has undergone some other changes, including a decrease in the number of graded projects students are required to complete and an increase in graded assignments done as homework and during labs and lectures. 

Mawhorter hopes that the shift to Mandatory Credit/Non grading will also promote student success and confidence in the course. 

“There are a lot of reasons for [Mandatory Credit/Non grading]. One of them is … we are a little understaffed this semester … ,” Mawhorter said. 

CS 111 is often in high demand among students. 

“We usually fill up every seat we possibly can and maybe add a few extra seats,” said Mawhorter. 

This semester, more than 70 students are enrolled in the course, divided among five lab sections and only two lecture sections. Mustafaraj and Mawhorter are the only professors teaching the course this semester. The department is currently interviewing candidates to join the current staff.

Cooper shared support for the course’s new grading policies. “In [CS] 111, we are doing a lot of new things,” Cooper said. “I think … making the workload more forgiving is … a good thing for the students, and making it Mandatory Credit/Non is … a good thing … and helps students – I think –  have a better time succeeding in intro CS,” they added. 

According to Miraya Gupta ’25, it is possible for students to earn “(Mandatory) Credit with Distinction” by earning a certain number of points in the course, but the new grading policy also relieves some of the pressure often associated with earning a high grade. 

“It’s just … up to the individual student how much they want to do,” Gupta said, explaining that students have the option of additional course work if they choose to seek “Credit with Distinction” but that students can also explore and work towards their own goals outside of grading. 

Among other factors, Mawhorter and Cooper identified the MCRN policy’s potential for promoting equity and increased opportunity to take CS courses as its most important benefit. 

“I think that all intro courses should be Credit/Non,” Mawhorter said, explaining that he hopes the policy will make the course more accessible to historically marginalized students.

 “I think there has been an issue in the past of CS 111 being a barrier to accessibility for the department … and being stressful and difficult enough that many students [chose] not to continue on with CS,” Cooper said. 

According to Cooper, CS 111 is not currently the only introductory course available to students. However, it remains an important prerequisite for many classes in the department.

Speaking of the motivation behind organizing the event, WCC President Angel Liu ’23 highlighted the intimidating nature of the management consulting industry and the lack of representation in leading consulting roles today. 

“Consulting is a very privileged industry … It’s very scary for someone who comes from an underprivileged background or race to even think about going into consulting,” Liu said. “If you’re looking at pictures on LinkedIn too, you see that a lot of [consultants] are white males and the work environment can be scary.” 

The panel began as an effort by Wellesley Consulting Club to help interested students gain insight into consulting as a career and the internship application process through conversations with Wellesley alums in consulting roles. This transformed into a collaboration with Girls Who Consult, a nationwide mentorship program for women looking to explore a career in consulting. This decision to change the structure of the panel discussion stemmed from the commonalities between the mission and values of WCC and Girls Who Consult. 

“We are at a historically women’s college and Wellesley is not a target school for a lot of the big management consulting firms,” Liu said. “At the same time, GWC has a goal of sending around 2500 students to management consulting by 2025 with a ratio of 1 to 1 between non-targeted school students and target school students. So we have the same objectives of caring for non-target school students while focusing on women empowerment.” 

The speakers at the panel were three Wellesley alums along with three Girls Who Consult alums, all of whom had worked in a range of consulting roles and organizations including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and BlackRock among others. It saw participation from a vast pool of Wellesley students seeking opportunities in the consulting space. According to Sunny Hwang ’24, WCC’s outreach chair, what differentiated the Women in Consulting panel from other consulting panels was WCC’s deliberate attempt to diversify the panelist pool and, in turn, provide the audience with a variety of career trajectories to learn from. 

“What we really tried to do is to diversify the types of consulting within the panelists so there would be someone from management consulting, but then there’ll also be a person with experience in tech consulting,” Hwang said. 

The event began with each panelist introducing themselves along with a brief description of the kind of work they’re involved in. This was followed by a one-on-one breakout room session which provided current students the space to get their questions answered and gain insight into what the respective panelists’ average day at work looks like. 

“The participants could talk to [the panelists] directly and ask them their own questions instead of ones that had been prepared by the organizers. The questions that were asked included what the company culture was like, especially for women,” Liu mentioned. “We also asked them to share their recruitment experience and how they prepared for interviews because the whole process of interviewing is very excruciating, especially for consulting.”

The panel shed light on some of the subfields that exist within consulting in addition to the more well-known management consulting subfield and the MBB (McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company) firms in particular. For Hwang, who was working closely with her co-outreach chair on locating the panelists for the event, it came as a challenge to find diversity even within Wellesley students who had previously interned at consulting firms. 

“Consulting has a lot of different branches and a lot of people know about MBB as management consulting,” Liu said. “But there’s also economic consulting, IT consulting, and financial consulting. Those are smaller fields and because consulting is usually not so popular at Wellesley, it becomes hard to find panelists who have done an internship in those fields sometimes.” 

Reflecting on the successful turnout, Liu and Hwang spoke of the possibility of continuing collaborating with organizations like Girls Who Consult in the future. Liu also offered advice for students seeking a future in consulting and shared her thoughts on the less-talked-about impact of the pandemic on crucial opportunities in the field. 

“I think this year’s recruiting process is already very preferable for non-target students in the way that a lot of exclusive information events have gone online due to COVID[-19],” Liu mentioned. “A lot of the time, they’re open to non-target students as well … I would definitely advise students to look at the company’s page. I think this is definitely going to be a trend going forward that non-target students will be considered for more roles in prestigious firms.”

Cynthia Gomez ’24 (she/her/hers)

Studying in Córdoba, Spain as part of PRESHCO (Programa de Estudios Hispánicos en Córdoba.) 

“One of the classes I’m taking is archaeology. I really like it because we get to go on excursions and we get the opportunity to see Roman ruins … There is this one store that I go to here called Bershka and our professor once said ‘hey, let’s go to Bershka,’ and we asked, ‘are you gonna go shopping?’ And they said ‘No, there’s ruins down there.’  It’s crazy because there’s definitely a lot of history here. There are ruins everywhere but people wouldn’t even know about it unless they are an archaeology major or something. And I am majoring in Biology so this was really interesting to me.”

Isabel (Isa) Martinez ’24 (she/her/hers) 

Studying in Bologna, Italy 

“The way that university works in Italy is very different because … it’s not really a four year program, it’s however long it takes you to finish your classes, which for someone, could be three and for others, it could be seven. It really depends on what their lifestyle is and how many classes they want to take. Whatever your program is, it has different requirements, so there’s a lot of people of different ages taking classes and they’re really big classes in auditoriums. It is very different from Wellesley and I wanted to have a different experience outside of Wellesley for my college experience.

“My favorite part [about the program] so far is the balance of social life and academics because at Wellesley, I feel our student life is very academically focused and then everything else is kind of on the side. But in this program, it is very much about your social life, and your interests are kind of centered around it … I definitely spend a lot of time with my friends like going out to dinner, going out to bars. We also spend time together studying, but I think it’s just a much healthier work life balance, and the people in the program are awesome. There’s about 24 of us and we all get along really well.”

Izzy Liu ’24 (she/her/hers) 

Studying at Oxford University 

“What is great about the visiting student program at Oxford is that it’s very intercollegiate because while we apply to particular colleges under University of Oxford, we’re all cross connected amongst each other … We take classes with people at Hartford College that come from different universities apart from Wellesley, and we’ve all become really close friends. So we’ve developed not only a social network but a network that allows us to ask questions and answer them. So you can get to know what’s up with the social calendar that week or how to pick up your mail or go about shipping something to myself.

“In addition, the support system at Oxford is great. They are really dedicated to making our stay as smooth and comfortable as possible, whether that is the visiting student director or what’s called the Porter’s Lodge which is sort of like the front desk equivalent of a hotel to answer any questions you might have.”

  Chemistry major Mary Martinez Nunez ’23 first learned of the Science Summer Research Program through posters displayed on the college campus. In regards to conducting research focused on antimicrobial peptides as a means to treat infections, Martinez Nunez mentioned having access to a wide range of resources and support throughout the duration of the program.

 “We had Dr. Don Elmore and Dr. Louise Darling [available] to answer any questions at any moment when we felt like we needed something,” Martinez Nunez said. “We also had people that were running the Science Center Program. We could go to them anytime.”

  Martinez Nunez commented on the diverse pool of students who she worked with and the opportunities to interact with students and professionals outside of Wellesley that helped deepen her understanding of the work she was involved in.

  “In my lab, there were two people that have never done research before. And then it was me and another person who had done research before. So, it was a good balance and we made sure we helped each other,” Martinez Nunez said. “Every Wednesday, we had seminars from experienced scientists from different fields. It could be in biochemistry, psychology…They would come in and give us a lecture on the work they do. And we also had a panel of people who went into the industry and didn’t specifically [attend] graduate school. So that was really helpful.”

  For economics and women and gender studies student Andrea Romero ’24, the Social Science Summer Research Program was helpful in connecting participating students to the program director and professors, who served as important resources.

  “We learned a lot more from professors on campus who were in the middle of their own research. We learned more about the practices of how to present,” Romero said. “There were also check-ins with one of the directors and we were able to ask questions to get a feel of how the rest of the program would play out.”

  Romero expressed her thoughts on the social environment of campus over the summer. “Wellesley is a bit isolating. It was nice to connect with other people who were doing the program to get that sort of stress relief. But, at the same time, I wish there were more resources for keeping up with students’ mental health,” she said. “However, I was able to work on my public speaking and it felt like a really comfortable space to do that.”

  Participating students expressed their key learnings from the research program and its role in helping them refine crucial skills.

  “I think my biggest takeaway from doing research was that now I feel confident to explore fields that are research intensive or go into academia after Wellesley, so I really appreciate that about the program,” Romero said.

  The programs concluded with a presentation by the students accompanied by posters displaying students’ research and its probable future applications. Some students, like Martinez Nunez, who are part of the McNair Scholars Program, received the opportunity to present their research at the prestigious McNair UMBC 30th Annual Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland.