Whitman Stories

Kimberly Rolfe, Co-Director of the Career and Community Engagement Center, shares insights on integrating career exploration and development programs throughout campus to support students and young alumni.

Students in the First Year Seminar Games learning community spent their first semester at Whitman learning about the philosophical and psychological aspects of socializing through playing games. It is part of Whitman’s First Year Seminars which are designed to immerse students in deep thought and transformative conversations while helping students gain the skills needed to succeed in college.

Xiaoze Xie’s exhibition, “PANORAMA: Cantos Unfolding,” at Whitman's Sheehan Gallery provided the backdrop for employees from Walla Walla's Providence St. Mary Medical Center to process some of the emotional and physical stress created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitman College, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and Walla Walla Community College partnered to host the inaugural Pášx̣apa Powwow. More than 400 people came from three states and five tribal communities to attend this monumental event.

Last summer International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) and Off-Campus Studies (OCS) joined together into one “global suite” to better meet the needs resulting from return to pre-pandemic levels of study abroad/off-campus studies participation and the largest ever number of incoming international students.

Whitman College received a leadership gift for a new junior-senior residential village and will name a hall in honor of Judge James Robart ’69. The announcement was made at a November 2023 Seattle event at T-Mobile Park launching the college’s Upward Together campaign.

Whitman College’s 2023–2024 Visiting Writers Reading Series (VWRS) features award-winning poet Robyn Schiff. Schiff is an English and literature professor at the University of Chicago and is a director of their creative writing program. Her most recent book, “Information Desk: An Epic” was published in August 2023.

Several Whitman students worked with local business leader Manuel Perez to organize Walla Walla’s first community parade celebrating the traditional Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Held in the downtown corridor close to campus, the event also included music and booths at Walawála Plaza and a public ofrenda at Grandma's Kitchen, Perez’s restaurant.

More than 1,500 alumni, faculty, staff, families and friends supported the college through ALL IN for Whitman giving days in October 2023. The collective effort raised more than $532,500 for scholarships and college’s greatest needs, as well as support for athletics and a broad variety of student-focused programs.

Whitman College is setting the stage for launching a transformative junior-senior residential village. The Board of Trustees, along with alumni and friends, initiated $10 million in gifts for this innovative project, with a goal of raising $30 million to commence construction.

This summer, Whitman student-athletes and coaches saw significant facility upgrades. Generous gifts of $3.6 million from alumni and friends led to the installation of a new FieldTurf surface, offering year-round training and competition. The field was dedicated on October 14, 2023, as James Hayner Field in honor of a Whitman trustee and Walla Walla community leader.

By investing in the chemistry department, Limei and Jay seek to elevate Whitman’s status as a top-notch liberal arts college that boasts a stellar STEM program and to equip future graduates to solve the world’s most pressing problems in the process.