Whitman Stories

As recipients of the Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Whitman College students Shahin Hamzeh ’27 and MinhThu Tran ’26 will conduct cutting-edge biomedical research at a Mayo Clinic site in Jacksonville, Florida, this summer.

In the summer of 2024, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Carlos Vargas-Salgado and two student researchers staged the theater production “Camasca” in the heart of Peru’s most Indigenous region, interviewing cast, crew and audience members about its political impact on the Hispanic world.

Now in its second year, Whitman College’s new Brain, Behavior and Cognition (BB&C) program already has 44 declared majors—the first of whom will graduate this spring.

In May, the Whitman College Geology Department made a strong appearance at the 2024 Joint Cordilleran and Rocky Mountain Section Meeting hosted by the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Spokane.

Professor of French and Francophone Studies Sarah Hurlburt ’91 and student researcher Madeline Senter ’25 digitize and catalog nearly 2,000 photographers of Métis (“mixed race” in French) people of French and Indigenous descent taken in the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s.

Pavel Blagov, Professor of Psychology and Director of Whitman’s Personality Lab, mentors students as they make connections between memory and personality while making meaningful connections in the Whitman and Walla Walla communities.

Madeline Senter ’25 discovers how to channel their passions into their studies at Whitman College. As a double major in Gender Studies and French and Francophone Studies, Senter is involved in the Métis Family Photo Archive research project.

Don’t let the simple sign fool you! Whitman College alums provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Personality Lab, where they gained valuable skills, self awareness and leadership experience while carrying out fascinating research with Psychology professors.

Chemistry major Kathryn Woodburn ’23 presented her research on a national stagethanks to her hard work and an award from the American Chemical Society.