Campus & Community

Baseball Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa got personal with the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2014 at its 153rd Commencement ceremony May 16. “The essence of personalization,” he told the more than 14,000 graduates, parents, friends and family members gathered in the Quad, “is that you personalize your feelings about yourself. … Care about what you represent and what you think of you. And then you translate this to the people that you work with: respect, trust and care.”

Leaders of the Women’s Society of Washington University announced the winners of the Harriet K. Switzer Leadership Award and the Elizabeth Gray Danforth Scholarship during their annual meeting April 24. Pictured (from left) are Switzer and seniors Katherine Bush and Tiffini Hyatt.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service selected eight sophomores for its fourth cohort of the Civic Scholars Program. Civic Scholars enroll in two years of academic coursework related to civic leadership and are mentored to prepare for a life dedicated to public service. They also carry out a civic project the summer before their senior years.

Guy Genin, PhD, has been named a 2014 Global Scholars Fellow at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Genin, a professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will be part of a team studying how engineers can help older adults make decisions about orthopedic surgeries involving rotator cuff repair.

More than a dozen distinguished individuals will speak at Commencement-related events later this month for graduates and their friends and families. The weeklong celebration culminates at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 16, with WUSTL’s 153rd Commencement ceremony in Brookings Quadrangle.​​

An undergraduate success story: Jolijt Tamanaha spent her last weeks of junior year at Washington University in St. Louis making a deal to sell a startup she co-founded called Farmplicity — an online marketplace that matches restaurants with local farmers — founded in a course through Olin Business School called The Hatchery.

Eugene B. Shultz Jr., professor emeritus in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, died Saturday, April 26, 2014, in Jerseyville, Ill. He was 85.

Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, discusses the important role of the humanities in American higher education in delivering the Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture for the Assembly Series earlier this month. Held annually, the lecture is part of the Phi Beta Kappa initiation ceremony. This year, 81 students were inducted into the prestigious honor society.

​​​Dedric Carter, PhD, has been appointed to the newly created position of associate provost and associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been associate dean for international education and research and professor of the practice in the School of Engineering & Applied Science. The appointment is effective June 1, according to Holden Thorp, PhD, university provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs; and Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration.​

As a prequel to the World Cup this summer, University College and the Summer School, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, are sponsoring a panel discussion May 5 titled “Is The USA Becoming a Soccer Country?”