For Starters

1. Bryn Mawr Welcomes Its 10th President

It was the morning of Monday, April 8, and Wendy Cadge’s flight out of Boston’s Logan Airport was canceled. It would be late that evening before she would arrive in Philadelphia.

But she was just in time for her homecoming—to Pennsylvania, where she grew up, and to her new home of Bryn Mawr College. Early on April 9, news articles, emails, social media, and the bells of Taylor Hall announced that Bryn Mawr’s 10th president had arrived. She was warmly welcomed by the campus community in a ceremony in the Great Hall, where she made an offering (a mechanical pencil) to a bedecked Athena and received a lantern from students, President Kim Cassidy, and Board of Trustees Chair Cynthia Archer ’75.

“I’m thrilled to be here,” Cadge told the crowd. “Honestly there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Anassa kata, kalo kale, Ia ia ia Nike, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr!” they responded.

2. Pew Grant for The Well

With the opening of The Well building in 2022, Bryn Mawr embraced the most holistic vision of student wellness in its history. Now, a $1.3 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts is going to make even greater innovation and service integration possible, says Dean of the Undergraduate Division Karlene Burrell-McRae.

The Well includes the Health and Wellness Center; Career & Civic Engagement; and the Impact Center for Community, Equity, and Understanding. Among the key components of the grant is staff training for curricular development and student support based on the “Designing Your Life” principles, concepts that can be applied to the areas of life, education, and vocation.

3. Poetic Possibility

Airea Dee Matthews, associate professor and co-chair of creative writing, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry. She is one of the distinguished 2024 Fellows selected for both their past accomplishments and exceptional promise. “This gift offers me the time and space to innovate on the page and concoct new approaches to the craft while materializing poetic possibility,” Matthews says.

4. Blue Bus Goes Green

This spring, the route from Bryn Mawr to Haverford became quieter and cleaner— environmentally, that is. The newest Blue Bus, the third electric vehicle in the College’s fleet, arrived on campus in early February. The cost was shared by Bryn Mawr and Haverford and benefited from a $100,000 grant from the state.

Because there is no gasoline engine, the bus will never require gas, oil changes, spark plug replacements, or other costly maintenance, and the students and drivers can enjoy cleaner air from the lack of emissions and pollutants. Professor Victor Donnay’s Math Modeling and Sustainability Praxis class found that in addition to reducing the carbon footprint to essentially zero, the bus would also save $87,000 in operational costs over 10 years.

5. Korean Joins the Curriculum

This academic year marked the first time that students could take Korean language classes in the Tri-Co. Bryn Mawr introduced the one-year program as a complement to the 2023 Flexner Lectures on Korean television drama. Previously, students interested in studying Korean had to register for classes at another institution.

In response to student interest, and with the help of a seed grant from the Korea Foundation and a pledge from Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, Bryn Mawr’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures will be offering Introductory Korean, Intermediate Korean, and two culture courses every year for at least the next six years as a pilot program.