Author: Diane Toroian Keaggy

Washington University in St. Louis welcomed the 1,780 members of the Class of 2021 on Thursday, Aug. 24. This year’s class includes six members of the first cohort of the College Prep Program, which prepares talented, first-generation students for life on a college campus.

Some 1,780 first-year students, the largest first-year class in Washington University’s history, will be arriving for the 2017-18 academic year that begins Monday, Aug. 28. The students hail from 49 states and 22 countries. A team of 300 students, faculty and staff volunteers will help haul everything from refrigerators and microwaves to laptops and bicycles. Trucks, vans, minivans and U-Hauls will line the South 40 driveways.

About 300 incoming Washington University PhD and graduate students attended orientation Aug. 21 at a secluded venue in Franklin County, in the eclipse’s path of totality. In between learning about the Graduate School’s many services and organizations, students stopped to marvel at the eclipse.

The “self” part of self-control can be a new concept for many college students. For years, they had parents and teachers to keep them on track. Then college comes, with its many demands and distractions, and students find themselves baffled by their own mistakes. Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, helps students understand the complicated brain basis for self-control.

Laura Cobb was struck by a drunken driver during her senior year at Washington University in 2008. She was seriously injured and today has aphasia, which severely limits her ability to speak. But she battled back, returned to school and graduated in May. She now works as a research technician on campus.

University College, the professional and continuing education division of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is now offering a 50 percent discount to full-time employees of St. Louis, Clayton and University City and their school districts. Charter school employees also are eligible.

William F. Tate, dean of the Graduate School at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the 2017 Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. Tate is also vice provost for graduate education and the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences. 

Rob Wild and Tamara King, two student affairs veterans, are moving into new, expanded roles, announced Lori White, vice chancellor for student affairs at Washington University in St. Louis.

Recent university alumna Emma Riley is a proud graduate of Clayton High School, but her perceptions of her hometown changed after she started studying Clayton’s history. Her documentary, “Displaced & Erased,” explores how city leaders zoned Clayton’s once-thriving black neighborhood out of existence to expand the central business district.

Ashley June Moore has been appointed program director of the Washington University in St. Louis College Advising Corps, which places recent graduates into local high schools to serve as full-time college advisers.