Go Beyond – Wheaton Quarterly

Gentlemen Callers set stage for future

Winter 2013 by Michael Graca

Gentlemen Callers board members: Austin Simko ’09, Alexander Grover ’09, Mark Mckone-Sweet ’92

The way that Mark McKone-Sweet ’92 remembers it, the first Gentlemen Callers had no idea that they were forming a group that would last beyond the semester. That makes it all the more remarkable that the male a cappella ensemble is approaching the 25th anniversary of its founding.

To celebrate, and to put the group in position for another 25 years or more, former members of the Gentlemen Callers decided to create a formal organization, the Gentlemen Callers Alumni Union, and establish a $100,000 endowment to support the student group into the future.

The fundraising effort pays forward the generosity that helped the original Gentlemen Callers prosper.

“We should never let go of the fact that we wouldn’t be here without the help of the Whims and the Wheatones, the Alumnae/i Relations Office, the dean of students and many others,” said McKone-Sweet, who serves on the group’s board of directors along with fellow alumni and a current student. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Features, Go Beyond

Flying high

Fall 2012 by Michael Graca

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...]

Filed Under: Features, Go Beyond, People Tagged With: Sciences

Creating momentum

Fall 2012 by Quarterly

Going 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...]

Filed Under: Go Beyond

Getting the ball rolling on new turf field

Fall 2012 by Hannah Benoit

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.

“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...]

Filed Under: Go Beyond, People