For the first time in 50 years, Grinnell faculty have approved a new requirement as part of the individually advised curriculum. The new course, First-Year Experience: Connections, is discussion-based and experiential and introduces students to important ideas about wellness, diversity, and respectful dialogue across difference. It delivers on the College’s stated mission and core values.

Sasha Baumann ’17, Evelyn Berryhill ’20, Anjali Jain ’21, and Lana Katai ’21 received Fulbright U.S. Student Grants for research/study and teaching English in 2021–22. For more than 70 years, Fulbright grants have provided future American leaders with opportunities to study, conduct research, and teach abroad.

n August Grinnell welcomed 472 first-year students from 46 different states and 31 countries. A welcome ceremony included the presentation of commemorative medallions that pay tribute to an important event in the College’s history.

The 2021 Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize of $50,000 was awarded to Victoria Jones, founder and executive director of TONE. Jones’ social innovation work centers Black joy, activism, and community building in Memphis, Tennessee.

A total of 7,806 donors made gifts to Grinnell College during the past fiscal year, an increase of 180 donors from the previous year. Gifts from alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends of the College, and parents of students and alumni combined to yield impressive participation and contribution totals. The number of alumni donors alone increased 7.6% from 4,979 to 5,358.

Jana L. Grimes has been appointed vice president of human resources. As a member of the senior leadership team, Grimes provides strategic vision, leadership, and direction for the College’s invaluable human resources. Grimes, who came to Grinnell from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, has more than 30 years of experience in human resources, 20 of those in higher education.

This summer the Offices of International Student Affairs and Community Partnerships, Planning, and Research partnered with the Grinnell Area Arts Council on a community mural project displayed on the south side of McNally’s Foods store in downtown Grinnell. The mural was designed by Guhn “Tommy” Lee ’22, a studio art major and a summer intern for the arts council.

I’m always proud to share that Grinnell was a stop in the underground railroad. In fact, I feel many find our legacy of social justice impressive when I talk about my time in the prairie. When I share these stories, I often think about the decisions our founders were faced with when they opened our school.

Born and raised in Nepal, Suyog Shrestha ’06 knew early on that he wanted to study physics in the United States; and in the summer of 2002, he came to Grinnell. Now a particle physicist, he’s been working at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), just outside Geneva, Switzerland, for the past decade.

When racing was shut down by the pandemic, Neil Martin ’99, clinical director of radiation oncology and co-director of the Prostate Cancer Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston, didn’t stop. He did dozens of 26.2-mile training runs, the equivalent of 57 marathons in a row. Running was a stress reliever at an incredibly stressful time.

My summer research with Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, by Feven A. Getachew ’24