Whitman Stories

Whitman College welcomed visitors to campus for Family Weekend last month. President Bolton kicked off the events with an informative Q&A, touching on the curriculum, campus climate and more.

Cecilia Kang ’94 gave the Class of 2024 some timely advice on how to use their head, their gut and their heart as human touchstones in a world increasingly powered by artificial intelligence.

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.

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.

Whitman College students in the new Human-Centered Design (HCD) concentration will have access to additional experts thanks to a generous $100,000 gift from the Lawrence Parke Murphy Trust. This gift to the college’s Upward Together campaign will fund an exciting designer-in-residence program beginning in the 2024–2025 academic year.

Beginning with the 2023–2024 academic year, this new concentration at Whitman College will provide a framework for students to learn and apply human-centered design principles across disciplines.