Author: Diane Toroian Keaggy

Career Catalysts is a series about WashU interns, by WashU interns. This installment features Olin Business School student Joel Shin, who spent his summer at the Aspirations Network, a nonprofit that supports St. Louis youth.

Beyond registering for classes and decorating their dorms, Andrea Stewart-Douglas, WashU’s director of student financial wellness programs, has another item for new college students’ to-do lists: Make a budget.

The Summer Philosophy Academy is a free one-week program for curious high school students. Through lectures, discussions and field trips, participants explore urgent ethical and philosophical questions about political polarization, artificial intelligence, social media and more.

Gary Wihl, the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, died July 17 in Clayton, Mo., after battling Parkinson’s disease. He was 72. Wihl served as dean of Arts & Sciences from 2009 to 2012.

Building on strong early outcomes, WashU has been awarded a $1.1 million four-year grant to extend its participation in the Kessler Scholars Collaborative and deepen its work to assure opportunity and success outcomes for first-generation, limited-income college students. 

WashU’s Rural Scholars Academy welcomed its third cohort of high school juniors to campus this month for college classes, admissions workshops and field trips to St. Louis attractions. Ten members of the academy’s first class will attend WashU this fall, many on full scholarships.

This summer, WashU Libraries is piloting an asynchronous version of the Data Rescue workflows that is open to all. Volunteers of all levels are invited to contribute to advocacy, web archiving and data preservation efforts. 

Thirteen teachers from across the St. Louis region have been selected to work with WashU faculty members for the 2025 Summer Teacher-Researcher Program. Administered in collaboration with the university’s Institute for School Partnership, the program provide professional development opportunities for area K-12 teachers.

Perla Giles, a rising senior majoring in molecular microbiology, and David Lee, a rising senior majoring in chemistry, have been chosen to participate in the Beckman Scholars Program, which provides in-depth research experiences for exceptionally talented undergraduate students.

Charlie Fioriglio, a rising senior studying physics and chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named an Astronaut Scholar, a competitive fellowship for exceptional undergraduate students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.