In a way, Jennifer Wilcox ’98 has always been an educator. She started teaching in high school—and her first student was herself.
Interested in science and hoping to become a doctor, Wilcox had set her sights on Wellesley because of its graduates’ high acceptance rate to medical school. But her school in rural Maine did not offer the advanced levels of math and foreign languages the College recommended for applicants.
So Wilcox bought a textbook and taught herself calculus, and she set up an independent study with the high school Latin teacher, eventually becoming so advanced that she taught the younger Latin students while her teacher was on leave. Wilcox was not only...