Class Acts 2015

Third-year law student Jonathan Adair applied to Washington University in St. Louis late in his search process and made a last-minute decision to attend. Now the Chicago native, who took advantage of myriad educational and service opportunities during his time at WashU, can’t imagine wanting to go anywhere else.

Samantha Gaitsch, a senior majoring in dance and in psychology, both in Arts & Sciences, performed with company-in-residence The Slaughter Project at Edison Theatre at Washington University in St. Louis.

This March, Lucy Cheadle, a senior in chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, stood atop a podium after earning a gold medal in the women’s 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field championship meet.

John Schmidt, a senior in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is the white playwright behind Black Anthology. In past productions, Schmidt has tackled profiling, post-racial politics, bias within the black community and the insidious ways prejudice persists on college campuses.

Saxophonist Adam Schefkind, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, is not big on banter.

There are many ways to work for social justice. You can lead rallies. You can petition the powerful. And you can play the ukulele.

As a senior chess master, Mark Heimann, a senior in Arts & Sciences, has long admired Garry Kasparov, perhaps history’s greatest chess player. But that’s not what impressed him most about Kasparov’s visit to Washington University in 2012, his freshman year. “Kasparov was somewhat of a household name for me when I was growing up,” […]

Comedian John Oliver, now the host of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” delighted students at Edison Theatre in 2011.

More than 1,500 new students, including Liggett/Koenig Lions (above), chanted their residential college cheers at Convocation at the Athletic Complex.

Improv troupe Suspicious of Whistlers (above) was one of many campus performance groups to act out stories written by Buder Elementary students at the second annual Young Storytellers Festival, hosted by Washington University senior honorary Mortar Board.

Near the Richmond, Virginia home of senior Lauren Henley still stands the site of the Industrial School for Wayward Colored Girls.

University College student, Army vet studies ‘the language of science’ to advance programs to veterans.

Campus leader Seiko Shastri changed Washington University in St. Louis during her time here. Now, she’s poised to change St. Louis.

With roots in another continent and a longtime interest in health and cultural issues, medical student Rahel Ghenbot felt a career in global health was a possibility.

WU-SLAM veteran and Washington University in St. Louis senior Sam Lai offers that advice to all slam poetry novices. Slam poetry, he says, should be intense, dynamic, maybe even embarrassing.

Not many young scientists get a chance to hobnob with Nobel laureates. So Jordan McCall was elated last year to learn that he had been chosen to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting — an annual gathering of Nobel laureates and young students and researchers.

Chicago to Seattle. Seattle to Hawaii. Hawaii to Christmas Island. Christmas Island to Fiji. Fiji to South Tarawa.