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Jeri Lynne Johnson ’93, a conductor and the founding artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, knew what she wanted to be from age 7, when she attended her first orchestra concert.

Speed, drama, loyalty, pride, camaraderie—Hooprolling has it all. In its nearly 130-year history, the race has become, as President Paula Johnson put it, iconic.

When Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59 created the Albright Institute at Wellesley, she hoped the fellows would support each other in the fight to establish women as leaders in the world. “The secretary really emphasized that you always leave the door behind you open for others to follow,” says Albright fellow Amal Cheema ’17.

At the funeral of Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59 at the Washington National Cathedral in late April, while the war in Ukraine raged on, she was celebrated for championing democracy—and breaking one of the world’s hardest glass ceilings.