Whitman Stories

Simek, Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures (French) and Interdisciplinary Studies, is a scholar of the French Guadeloupean author's work and legacy.

Whitman College holds the designation of Tree Campus USA from the Arbor Day Foundation. What does it take to maintain our campus trees (and our 1:1 student to tree ratio)? Watch the video to see how arborist Kirk Huffey climbs trees on campus to perform maintenance and pruning. You can also enjoy a virtual tour of Whitman's prickly trees, led by Senior Lecturer of Biology Susanne Altermann.

Sam Geschickter '20 brings his philosophical thinking from his religion studies at Whitman into his internship at a local bank. This thinking lead to a senior thesis project on the philosophy of risk-taking in the economy and business. Geschickter spends hours inside Penrose Library researching this subject.

Before starting her first year at Whtiman College, Anneke Sherry '22 spent a year traveling the globe and learning more about herself and the world.

Two Whitman College seniors will have the chance to travel the world and pursue knowledge thanks to awards from the Watson Foundation. Evangelos Sarantinos '20, a biology major from Seattle, Washington, and Cameron Conner '20, a rhetoric and politics double-major from Spokane, Washington, are recipients of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

Whitman College a cappella group Schwa virtually performs a cover of "Distance" by Emily King. Students submitted recordings from Walla Walla, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Breckenridge, Colorado.

Detailing what he describes as the three phases of climate policy in the U.S., Dunnivant grapples with how capitalism almost destroyed the planet and how it might save it, plus how to hold powerful climate deniers accountable.

Frontline workers in the medical and emergency response industries are getting a boost in access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitizer thanks to the generosity and expertise of Whitman College faculty, staff and alumni.

Whitman offers President’s Scholarships and talent-based scholarships in theatre arts, fine arts, debate and music. For the fine arts award, recipients have to at least minor in the Art Department. Now a sophomore mathematics and English double major, with an art minor, Sylvie Corwin included images of painted mailboxes in her art portfolio, and received a talent-based President’s Scholarship to study at Whitman.

Archie and his friends are a long way from where they started as innocent teens in the pages of comic books. And along for the ride is Evan Martin ’16, a film and media studies major, who has served as a writer’s assistant for the “Riverdale” TV show on The CW since December 2017.  

Before Whitman College announced the move to online teaching in March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sams and Thayne had already made the decision to shift the course to an online format out of concern for the safety of students and the CTUIR community.

Kirtley has been sending out weekly video messages to students during this time to help them feel connected despite the recent shift to distance learning.