Jacqueline Yentumi ’26, a first-generation college student and scholar in the Kaplan Leadership Program, earned her associate’s degree from Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York before she transferred to Wellesley this fall. A prospective data science major, she says her interest in computer science and technology drew her to the College.
“In previous computer science courses I had taken, men often talked over me, and my ideas were disregarded. … I’m passionate about making other women of color feel comfortable in tech-oriented spaces,” she said. She thought attending a college like Wellesley could be empowering, allowing her to acheive her goals.
While most Wellesley students arrive as first-years immediately after completing high school, others transfer from another institution, like Yentumi, or join the community after spending many years away from academia through Wellesley’s Davis Degree Program. No matter when in their academic careers these students arrive on campus, the College offers a variety of orientation programming to make sure they feel like they belong just as much as the students who arrived as first-years.
Emily Bader ’18, who transferred from American University in fall 2015, remembers hearing about Wellesley from her mother and godmother, who are alums, but she didn’t apply as a high school student. She didn’t think she wanted to go to a place like Wellesley. “But when I arrived at my medium-sized, coed university in the middle of a city, I realized Wellesley was exactly the kind of experience I wanted.”
As part of her course ENG 242: From “Nature Poetry” to Ecopoetics, Alison Hickey, associate professor of English, took her class to visit Global Flora. There, the students sat among the plants and wrote in their notebooks about the nature around them. Hickey says she wants to inspire them to “think about their own relation to nature” while studying how others have put that relationship into words.
Ecopoetry, Hickey says, has been defined in many different ways. The poet and environmentalist John Shoptaw calls it “nature poetry that has designs on us, that imagines changing the ways we think, feel about, and live and act in the world.” In her class, Hickey challenges students to reimagine their own ways of relating to the natural world.
Cross-listed in environmental science, the course is supported by a grant from Wellesley’s Paulson Ecology of Place Initiative, led by Suzanne Langridge, which encourages students to interact with the environment. Hickey’s students will also make paper in the Book Arts Lab using phragmites, a type of reed found in meadows around campus. When the weather warms, they will spend some of their classes in those meadows.
At Global Flora, Hickey asked students to respond to three simple writing prompts that are a staple in nature education: “I notice … ,” “I wonder … ,” It reminds me of ….” “Don’t think you’re not equipped to say something because you don’t have the right vocabulary,” she said. She encouraged them to take a similar approach when reading poetry. “Poetry can feel intimidating, but its medium, language, is one that we all use every day. Start by giving yourself the time and mental space to notice and wonder—in both senses of the word—and take it from there.”
Erynn Lau ’26, who is taking Hickey’s class, says the course gives them a different perspective on their geoscience major. “The things we talk about in class remind me of what science could be,” they say. “I would love for my geoscience to be enhanced by the ideas we discuss in Ecopoetics. I think that poetry has a place in science.”
One of Lau’s favorite aspects of the course is the community Hickey has built among the students. “We spent a good amount of time learning each other’s names and getting to know each other,” they say. “I’ve spent semesters where I’m only sharing an intellectual space with my classmates, but we have an opportunity in this class to share a community.”
Maggie Erwin ’23 took Hickey’s class in spring 2022 because at the time she “was thinking a lot about the intersection of poetry and our engagement with the natural world, poetry and the climate crisis, and the environmental humanities,” she says. “I wanted to explore those ideas more.” As an English major, she sometimes felt a bit removed from the world, and “ecopoetry is a way that you really have to grapple with what it means to be human and to be doing human things in this world that we live in.”
The experience inspired Erwin so much that she wrote her thesis on Seamus Heaney’s poetry, with Hickey as her advisor. “A lot of what I learned in ecopoetry informed my thesis and made me want to write it,” she says. Erwin gave a presentation on Heaney during the second part of the course, where students all choose a poet to present to the class.
“Poetry and the humanities do not exist in a vacuum,” says Erwin. “They are an important part of how we understand things like the climate crisis. A lot of what is communicated through poetry is the way we understand our place in nature, because a lot of it we can’t explain. … Reading and writing poetry are actually critical parts of thinking about things like climate change.”
Like transfer students, Davis Scholars participate in both the virtual and in-person new student orientation programs.
“Because of the distinctiveness of the Davis Degree Program and the very different perspectives and life experience these students bring to our community, Davis Scholars have a modified schedule that allows for a more personalized and intimate orientation program with me as their primary resource,” says Kelly Lewis, the program’s director. She says her goal is to ensure that nontraditional-aged students have an opportunity to benefit from an excellent liberal arts education.
“Working with and getting to know the Davis Scholars on an intimate level has been one of my favorite aspects of being at Wellesley and a highlight of my career,” says Lewis, who joined Wellesley in July 2022. “I am so blessed to work with, support, and learn from such a phenomenal group of students.”
Moriah Lit DS ’23 went back to school at age 32, earning her associate’s degree from Community College of Philadelphia in 2021 before coming to Wellesley as a Davis Scholar that fall.
“The funny part is I didn’t know the Davis Degree Program existed when I applied to Wellesley,” Lit says. “I assumed I would be put into the same applicant pool as traditional-age students, but after I applied, someone [in Wellesley’s Office of Admission] reached out and told me I would be a better fit for the Davis Degree applicant pool.”
More than 900 students have graduated from the Continuing Education/Davis Degree Program at Wellesley, including Ophelia Dahl DS ’94, co-founder of Partners In Health; Diana DiZoglio DS ’11, the current state auditor of Massachusetts; and Angela Carpenter DS ’99, now an associate professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Wellesley.
For some Davis Scholars, like Lit, finding community at Wellesley can be challenging at first. “At 36, I was the oldest student on campus for a while, and I think I felt kind of out of place for the first two months, but eventually I felt like Wellesley was where I was supposed to be,” Lit says.
Lewis says she strives to create a strong sense of community and belonging among Davis Scholars. “During my weekly drop-in hours at the Continuing Education House and at our community lunches, I hear firsthand accounts of some of the challenges some of these students face in and outside of the classroom as nontraditional Wellesley students,” she says. She has reintroduced a peer mentoring program, where first-year Davis Scholars are paired with returning ones who offer additional support and guidance.
Lewis also encourages Davis Scholars to participate in student clubs and organizations and to apply for different educational and professional opportunities: “I’m constantly reminding the Davis Scholars that they, too, are entitled to all that Wellesley has to offer, and if there’s something out there that is interesting or exciting to them, they should go for it!”
Lit agrees. “If an email comes your way about a grant or a study abroad program, apply!” she says. “Spend the extra 10 minutes after class to talk to your professors, and go to office hours. … Really, just take advantage of every opportunity.”
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If you are interested in applying to Wellesley College as a transfer student or Davis Scholar, you can find more information here. The application deadline for the 2024–2025 academic year is in mid-March.