Whitman Stories

Award-winning technology journalist, Cecilia Kang ’94, urges Whitman College graduates to “be human.”

Kate Greenberg’s path to becoming Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture has been one of exploration and service. Her Whitman College experience gave her a love for the West and informs how she thinks of her work.

In the fall of 2022, Professor Julia Ireland ’90 was facing a health crisis. She found not only a supporter and friend in fellow Whitman colleague Joanie Lucarelli but the gift of a lifetime—and a new joy and lease on life.

English Professor Sharon Alker shares her love of literature with her Whitman College students—and her academic interests have taken her around the world to research. She writes academic text with her sister, who is also an English professor. Alker is also an inaugural faculty member for Whitman's innovative Human-Centered Design program.

Mwamba Muntanga ’25, a Sociology major from Zambia, is driven by personal experience. Using that experience and a desire to be of service to others, he relentlessly advocates for accessible education for all with his nonprofit Education24. During his first year at Whitman, Muntanga’s efforts secured more than $2 million in student scholarships for his nonprofit by winning the prestigious Mwape Peer Education Excellence Award.

Professor Frank Dunnivant shares why he has spent his career focusing on environmentalism, conducting research with students, and why he isn’t retiring anytime soon.

As a student, recent graduate Quinn Miller ’24 created a biology course, Campus Landscape: A Living Laboratory that was offered to fellow students in Spring 2024. The course and lab focused on developing projects that helped reintroduce native plants and Indigenous culture into the Whitman College campus.

More than 300 graduates—and their families and friends—had their moment to celebrate well-earned diplomas at Whitman College’s 138th Commencement. Cecilia Kang, Whitman alum and award-winning National Correspondent at The New York Times, delivered the Commencement speech.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Whitman College nearly $150,000 to develop new curricula for the Human-Centered Design concentration. The NEH grant will provide two years of support for faculty to design, refine, enhance and implement the core components of the program.

A preview of how graduates, families and the Whitman community will commemorate this joyous occasion, and celebrate the exceptional accomplishments and bright futures of its Class of 2024.

The Whitman College baseball team accomplished greatness by winning its first Northwest Conference regular season title since 1952 and will host its first NWC Tournament.

Whitman College students will perform potentially life-changing research in Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science facilities through the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.