Whitman Stories

A child taking the father’s surname is no longer such an obvious choice for today's parents. Professor of Sociology Michelle Janning explains, "We’re seeing increased diversity of family structures that stem from various global locations where practices differ from Judeo-Christian patriarchal practices... Even our systems are now better set up to include more naming options than in the past.” 

Whitman College Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology major Grace Newman is one of only 417 students from across the U.S. selected for this year’s prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

Whitman College junior Joy Nina Nampaso and sophomore Stacy Mwangi have each been awarded up to $10,000 from the Projects for Peace program, which enables students at partner institutions to develop innovative, community-centered projects addressing critical issues around the world.

Whitman College junior Kainat Ansari and senior Annie Means are the recipients of the 2022 Ben Rabinowitz Award, which supports student-proposed projects or learning opportunities that promote compassion in medicine or politics and enrich the campus community.

Whitman College is partnering with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to bring this important element of Plateau culture and architecture to Ankeny Field.

In this overview of lab accidents that changed the world, including the invention of Scotchgard, Associate Professor of Sociology and Garrett Fellow Alissa Cordner explains how products with hormone-disrupting PFAS are “pretty much everywhere you look.”

At the factory, each piece of wood is printed with assembly instructions and moved to one of three assembly lines, where a team of framers nails together a frame. The process is powered by detailed digital plans and customized computer software, and has drawn new focus during the recent labor crunch and housing shortage.

Whitman College junior sociology major Devon Player from Snoqualmie, Washington, has received a Newman Civic Fellowship from Campus Compact.

A gift from Christina and Peter Dawson, parents of Adam Dawson ’16, will enable the college to expand the department toward providing students with increasingly critical digital skills.

According to The New York Times’ “Your Money” columnist, Ron Lieber, Whitman College is “in the vanguard of a movement toward transparency about the price of college and the process for lowering it.”

Emeritus Scientist at the United States Geological Survey Stephen Hammond ’79 will take the podium this spring as Whitman College’s 2022 Commencement Speaker. 

This year’s symposium covered issues including diversity in sports at Whitman, religious inclusion, abortion access, entrepreneurship in BIPOC communities and barriers for first-generation college students.