The Return of WesConnects

Issue 13 · Winter 2008
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by Virginia Weihs, Dwight Greene ’70 Intern

WesConnects is a student of color mentoring program that has existed in a variety of formats since the late 1970s, when it was first sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College, led by the late Edgar F. Beckham ’58. After a brief hiatus, WesConnects is being reestablished through the Office of Diversity and Academic Advancement (ODAA). It operates through the Dwight Green ’70 internship, which was created in 2003 as a way to honor student leader Dwight Greene’s legacy of mentoring and community building, as well as his relationship with Beckham and their work together to advance diversity at Wesleyan.

The aim of WesConnects is to cultivate the sharing of knowledge, experiences, strengths, and aspirations between incoming and returning students as well as faculty, staff, and alumni. The program creates a network of support that recognizes and affirms the complex identities and multiple meanings associated with the concept of “Student of Color” which in turn fosters academic successes and an educational climate that encourages engagement in diverse contexts.

In 2007, under the leadership of Samira Karim-Abdul ’07, the first Dwight Greene ’70 intern, WesConnects initiated a new Wesleyan tradition — the graduation stoles tradition. ODAA sponsored an application process for free graduation stoles in which all seniors had the opportunity to submit personalized stole designs whose motifs were related to their responses to a series of questions about campus climate and social justice at Wesleyan and how these related to their own successes and achievements. The stoles, unique in their distinctive colors and patterns within a sea of red and black, made for powerful symbols of Wesleyan’s commitment to pluralism within unity at graduation; the students’ stories of their own histories and positive campus experiences, shared during the Alumni of Color Weekend, served as rich contributions to knowledge of the legacy of diversity work at Wesleyan.

I welcome your involvement in WesConnects’ next stage of development. Check for updates and events through the ODAA Web site.