Wheaton College Norton, Massachusetts
» Go Beyond

Flying high

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Grace Relihan ’12 with a pigeon at the Raptor Trust, based in central New Jersey.Grace Alloy-Relihan ’12 has been fascinated by birds her whole life but didn’t know it until she stepped into “Evolution and Ecology,” the course taught by Professor of Biology John Kricher.

“There is in that course a large section on the evolution and anatomy of dinosaurs, leading all the way to the evolution of modern birds,” says Alloy-Relihan. “After a particular lecture detailing the feathered dinosaurs found in Liaoning, China, I went home to my own parakeets and stared at them for an hour because I saw what they really were for the first time.

“There were two small dinosaurs in a cage in my house. I was looking into the eyes of the creatures I’d been so fascinated by my whole life.” [Read more...]

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Creating momentum

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Go Beyond, Campaign for WheatonGoing further than anyone expected—that’s the spirit of Wheaton and Go Beyond: Campaign for Wheaton. In fact, alumnae/i, parents and friends pushed the Wheaton Fund more than $125,000 beyond its $4.3 million goal. How? More alums gave to the fund this year, and more gave more to support current students and the programs on which they depend. All that giving is making a difference. The campaign now stands at more than $108.6 million, on its way toward the goal of $120 million by June 30, 2014. [Read more...]

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Getting the ball rolling on new turf field

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Diane C. Nordin ’80

Diane C. Nordin ’80 playing on Wheaton’s field hockey team in 1977

As an alumna of Wheaton’s field hockey team, Diane C. Nordin ’80 knows that athletics shapes both body and mind.

Trustee Diane C. Nordin ’80

“The feeling of working hard, cheering, competing, succeeding and failing, and doing something with your body, not just your mind—those were important things you didn’t always find in the classroom,” says Nordin, now a Wheaton trustee. Through sports she learned resilience, how to make decisions on the spot, and how to juggle everything she needed to do “in order to succeed athletically, academically and spiritually.”

Nordin was reminded of her field hockey days in the summer of 2010, when she invited local Wheaton families to dinner at her home in Concord, Mass. There she reconnected with a former teammate, Elizabeth Atwood ’80, and met Atwood’s daughter Julia, then a forward on the Wheaton field hockey team. [Read more...]

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Creating community

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Diana Davis Spencer ’60

Nathania Aritao ’12, Aaron Bos-Lun ’12, Vladyslav Stadnyk ’12, Diana Davis Spencer ’60, Onyedikachi Udeoji ’12 and He Zhou ’12.

Diana Davis Spencer ’60 knows students, lots of them.

When the trustee emerita talks about Wheaton, she peppers her comments with anecdotes about recent visits she’s had with current students as well as updates on the lives of recent graduates from every corner of the globe.

“I enjoy getting to know students,” Spencer says. “When I was a member of the Board of Trustees, serving on the Student Trustee Liaison Committee was a highlight for me.”

She still makes students her priority. Spencer traveled to campus in May before Commencement to share lunch with five Davis United World College scholars who were about to graduate. Since then, she has met with two of those students: one while passing through New York City; another visited her Washington, D.C., home. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Go Beyond, People