Washington Magazine

Brittany Packnett’s commitment to social justice has taken her from the streets of Ferguson all the way to the White House, where she helped shape policy to make policing less racially biased.

Elizabeth Gentry Sayad, AB ’55, MA ’03, preserves the St. Louis region’s French history.

“[Improvisation] is much more difficult than reading music. You don’t have to be very gifted to read a novel. You do to write a novel,” says Rich O’Donnell, director of the Electronic Music Studio in the Department of Music.

Weil served on the faculty for 37 years as an art historian, and his contributions as a teacher, scholar, administrator and benefactor have left an indelible mark on the university and generations of students.

Two alumni couples from very different decades share their stories of coming to Washington University and finding their perfect matches — life partners and an ideal hometown.

Thanks to the alumni network at Washington University, Justin Au, Sam Fox School, Class of 2015, was able to spend his summer working on a music video for the popular band OK Go. The video ended up going viral.

Though he studies chemistry, graduate student Cole Pruitt has been interested in the game of Go since he was 6 years old. After playing Go in college, he decided to create a documentary about the popular Asian game. Working on it taught him new appreciation for the game.

Schael was hired in 1978. At the time, the athletics department was made up primarily of part-time staff. The facilities were 60 years old. “There were lots of naysayers,” Schael recalls. “They said things like, ‘You’ll never be able to change this department.’”

“The most important legacy for him is that the student-athletes have a great experience. It’s not the wins and losses, but the experience itself,” says Nancy Fahey, women’s basketball coach.

The stats that show how former athletics director John Schael changed the department over his 30-year tenure.