March 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Goodness, is it March already?! The light is returning to both ends of the day and there promises to be warmth and budding in the coming days and weeks. Whew.

Here at the half-way mark of the Winter term, I wish you great strength in grading midterms while also starting the great push to the end of the academic year. Thanks for all that you do to help us achieve the mission of W&L!

Best wishes,

Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPoT) - Faculty Training Sessions

Winter 2025 Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPoT) will be launched on March 31. There will be training sessions to guide you through the process of setting up and managing your surveys.

Please RSVP here.

Tuesday, March 11 at 10:00 a.m. in Leyburn 119
Tuesday, March 18 at 3:00 p.m. in Leyburn 119

During these sessions, you will receive a comprehensive overview of the system's functionality, including how to adjust survey release dates and add custom questions.

These sessions are intended for faculty but administrative assistants who support the SPoT process are welcome to attend too.

Institute for Honor Symposium: "Food, Housing and Health: Exploring Corporate Impact on the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in the Shenandoah Valley"

The Institute of Honor Symposium will be held on March 14-15. This year's theme is Food, Housing, and Health: Exploring Corporate Impact on the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in the Shenandoah Valley. Ambassador Ertharin Cousin will be the keynote speaker. She currently serves as the managing director and CEO of Food Systems for Future Ventures, as well as the CEO of its sister nonprofit, the Food Systems for the Future Institute.

To review the schedule of events click here.

Kassie Scott ‘18’s talk “More than Money: My Journey So Far”

Direct your students to attend Kassie Scott '18's talk, "More than Money: My Journey So Far," on Wednesday, March 5th at 5:30 PM in Hillel 101.

A first-gen college student, Rhodes finalist and Oxford graduate, Kassie has built work experience in consulting, research, data science and government. Kassie shares how she navigated challenges, overcame self-doubt, and learned that success is about more than money—it's about finding work that truly matters and staying aligned with your values.

This is a great talk for students contemplating career paths as well as faculty who want to learn more about how to advise students about career.

"Encore: Arts Alumni and Career Conversations"

Theater, Dance, and Film Studies is hosting Encore, an event featuring arts alumni and the Bentley musical on March 15, 2025, so that students can meet and speak with alumni who've crafted a career in the arts. As part of the occasion, there will be two dynamic panel discussions offering unique perspectives on the evolving landscape of the arts at W&L. One panel—Saturday, March 15th from 9am to 9:45 am in the Johnson Theater—will be made up of current students who will reflect upon their study of the arts and how our programs have grown. A second panel—Saturday, March 15th from 10 to 10:45 am in the Johnson Theater—will be comprised of alumni in successful arts careers who will share the ways their university experiences and creative community prepared them for the challenges of a professional world and helped shape their career and life after college.

*This event is for students FROM ANY MAJOR who are interested in marketing, arts management, podcast and music programming, and a host of careers that support the arts. It's also for any faculty and staff who want to know more about how to advise students about career paths.*

You can stay on to attend the Bentley musical, "The Prom," at 2 pm in the Keller Theater.

*Register* Faculty, staff and students register for free here.

For more information, contact Jenny Davies or Michelle Jones.