Month: February 2020

2020 Pa’lante Graduation

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The Pa’lante graduation committee is a group that provides a Spanish language graduation ceremony intended to provide an intimate ceremony for non-English speaking families.

Pa’lante will honor Latinx identifying students in the Class of 2020 and recognize their achievements in the Wesleyan community. If you wish to participate in this fourth annual ceremony.

Please complete this as quickly as possible. Please click here to fill out the Survey, it should take about 1 minute. Please copy the following link into your web browser if the hyperlink is not working:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcXBZGpLKMYWTQYia_uXRM8Zz6BWmqnkc0lD-NsskO2FrePQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

For more information, please contact the Pa’lante Graduation Committee

Jennifer Escobedo ’20
Angie Soto ’21
Nathali Madrid ’21

Last Day to Change Grading Mode for Student Option Courses

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Today is the last day to change the grading mode for student option course.  If you wish to change the grading mode for a course, login to portal, and click on “Class Schedule.”  For student option courses, there is a drop down menu in the grade column where you can select the grading mode you desire.  Changes to grading mode do not require approval of the instructor or your faculty advisor.

You have until 5:00pm EST today, February 19, to make any changes.

Apply to be Senior Commencement Speaker

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Would you like to share your Wesleyan experience at graduation?  If so, simply submit a 200-250 word essay answering the following question:

What has your Wesleyan experience meant to you?

The essay should be roughly equivalent of the speech you wish to deliver at graduation. Completed essays should be emailed to Dean Phillips (dphillips@wesleyan.edu) by 12:00 noon on Wednesday, March 25.

All essays will be reviewed anonymously by the Senior Commencement Speaker Selection Committee, which will select several finalists for interviews from the pool.  Interviews will be conducted in mid-April, after which the speaker will be announced.

Speaking at Commencement is a unique responsibility which should be taken seriously.  If you are interested in becoming the senior speaker for Commencement, please don’t hesitate to submit an essay!

Good luck and all the best!

The Senior Commencement Speaker Selection Committee

Rebecca Greenberg
Maximo Lipman
Emily Litz
Emilio Weber
Professor Suzanne O’Connell (Faculty Marshal)

Certify your Majors, Minors, and Certificates

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In preparation for graduation clearance it is time to certify all your majors, minors and/or certificates.

Go to your Academics bucket in WesPortal and click on the Major/Minor/Certificate Certification link. You will see a separate link for each major, minor, and certificate you have. You must first mark the courses you wish to offer in satisfaction of each requirement by checking the box next to the course.

Once you have offered the appropriate number of courses to satisfy each requirement, you must choose a Capstone Experience at the bottom of the form and click the Save button to update. Then return to the landing page where you clicked into the form and you will see a Final Submit button appear. Click it to electronically route your form to your faculty certifier.

If you wish to offer a course that does not appear on your form, you may click the “request override” link on the requirement line where you want the course to appear. Please note that you will not be able to submit your final form for certification until all override requests have been resolved, so you should submit those asap. The student deadline for submitting all Major/Minor/Certificate Certification forms is February 28, 2020. Faculty have until March 30th to certify you.

It is the student’s responsibility to submit their forms for certification. Majors, minors and certificates that are not certified will be dropped from your academic record at the end of the term.

If you have not already done so, please give this your immediate attention.  If you need assistance, please contact Susan Krajewski, Senior Associate Registrar, at skrajewski@wesleyan.edu.

Wesleyan Library Undergraduate Research Prize

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Any student can submit a paper or project, widely conceived, from an undergraduate course taken between Spring 2019 and Winter 2020.  Honors theses are not eligible. The deadline is February 28, 2020 at 5:00 pm, and the first place winner will receive a cash prize of $500. I’m attaching a copy of the poster, in case that’s helpful, and here is a link to submission info.

Order Your Cap and Gown

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This year students will purchase their cap and gown regalia (via credit card) from the following Oak Hall website:  https://wesleyan.shopoakhalli.com/purchasewizard/Welcome

Students will either choose a Bachelor Package, Masters Package, or Doctor Package. The website will guide you to the correct gown size by asking height and weight questions. Students can also stop by the Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore – starting Monday, February 10th – to try on sample sizes before ordering on line.

All Bachelor Regalia will be shipped to the Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore and will be available for pick up starting Monday, May 4th. Students will have until March 15th to purchase their caps and gowns on line.

Please note: For those who don’t have the financial resources, loaner caps and gowns are available through the Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore. Distribution of loaner graduation cap & gown will be limited to the week of May 11th. For further information, email Paula Page ppage@wesleyan.edu or visit her at the Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore. Supplies are limited.

Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore: 413 Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457 (860) 685-3939.
Store Hours: Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

 

Confirm your Diploma Name

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To ensure that your full legal name is spelled correctly on your diploma, we are asking you to confirm your diploma name.  Please confirm your name as soon as possible.

In your WesPortal under ‘My Information’ click on Diploma Name. The name that we currently have on file will be displayed on this page.  If your name is correct, please click on Confirm/Update button at the bottom of the page.  If your name is not correct, please make any necessary corrections before selecting the Confirm/Update button.

Please note that you will only be able to update your name once per day – if you confirm your name in error, you will need to return to the page the following day to make any corrections.

If your name contains special characters or accents, please confirm the spelling of your name without the characters or accents.  In order to make sure that the special characters or accents appear correctly on your diploma, you will be asked to link to the Special Character Diploma Name Confirmation form and send it to the Registrar’s Office.

To make a correction to your legal name for all other university records, you will need to bring a form of legal identification (birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, or legal name change document if your name has been legally changed) to the Registrar’s Office.

The diploma name system will close on Sunday, April 19th at 11:59pm.

Boston Career Trek: Applications due 2/13

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The Boston Career Trek program begins on-campus and includes a day trip to Boston to meet with Wesleyan alumni at their places of work. Students will have the option to choose from treks in one of six different fields including sales/marketing, tech, health, journalism/media, education and visual arts. More information (including participating employers) is available on Handshake, and interested students should apply by Thursday, February 13.

Additional career trek opportunities this spring include the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Global Health & Innovation Conference, the Jackson Laboratory, and the 2020 MIT Sustainability Summit. These opportunities all have an application deadline of Thursday, February 20th.

Summer Session Financial Aid Requests due 2/28

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The Summer Session Financial Aid request form is available now! Request aid by February 28 to receive an award before registration opens on March 6. The request form is in your WesPortal >Course> Summer Session. To be eligible for aid, you must currently be receiving Wesleyan need-based grant funds. International students receiving need-based grant funds may be eligible to receive aid for Summer Session. Need-based grant funds are limited and students also should expect to consider student loans.

Applying for grant aid does not commit you to taking a course. If you think you might enroll in a Summer Session course but you’re not sure, apply for grant aid anyway! The form is very simple and will take less than a minute to fill out. You do not need to resubmit FAFSA or other detailed forms for Summer Session aid – we already have them on file.

A list of classes can be found here.

Financial Aid process:

  1. Request Wesleyan grant aid by February 28 at noon, using the link in your WesPortal.
  2. You will receive an award letter by March 3.
  3. Enroll in your courses online through WesPortal (Courses – Summer Session) beginning March 6.
  4. If you plan to use student loans to pay for your course, please consult with your financial aid advisor to make sure you have enough loan availability to cover Summer Session.
  5. We will continue to accept requests through noon, April 15, and will send out award letters for requests received between Feb 28 at 12:01 pm and noon, April 15 on April 21.

Applications for grant aid will not be accepted after April 15 at noon.

Need-based grant funds are limited and will not meet full need, as Summer Session is an optional term.
If you have any questions, please email Mary Kelly at mgkelly@wesleyan.edu. Thank you!

Fellowships After Graduation

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With graduation coming up in a few short months, many of you are thinking about the future. Did you know that alumni from all academic backgrounds are eligible to apply for several national fellowships? These are fully funded, usually year-long programs that support research, English teaching, graduate study, and professional experiences in and outside of the U.S. Come learn more at this info session on Tuesday, February 4, at 12 noon at the Fries Center for Global Studies in Fisk Commons.