SLC Stories

Bernice hit the ground running at SLC, embracing its trademark interdisciplinary approach: her students connect geology, earth science, environmental justice, physics, math, and more, to arrive at an understanding of climate change’s impact on where we live—and what we can do to protect our future.

“Teaching and learning math has to be a shared act of imagination.”

“I was basically doing a five-year projected plan for the company. It was really interesting, because I was able to research the various regulations and laws for the makeup industry.”

Uninterested in conventional journalistic starting blocks, Tinder Kiely began building his investigative reporting portfolio at Sarah Lawrence right away.

“Half the class is SLC students, half the class is incarcerated women, and we’re all writing poetry and receiving college credit. We’re all coming from really different places, and we don’t ignore that.”

Alumni and students come together in a new, three part series of events sponsored by the offices of Career Services, Alumni Relations, Disability Services, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Michelle Hersh is grateful for Sarah Lawrence’s easy access to the Hudson River, where a rich ecosystem serves as an extension of her on-campus lab.

For Michaela, an audience’s relationship with art is as important as the work itself. Her conference work often examines how a viewer’s relationship with a piece can influence popular attitudes and social policy.

When asked about how her writing influences her teaching, Carolyn was insistent that it was actually the other way around.

George Scott takes environmental science and urban ecology personally—he’s a fourth-generation New Yorker, and has seen first-hand how issues like water quality and pollution can affect a city.

“I realized the power art can have in terms of activism. I was getting back into theatre in my own life and realized I don’t have to give up art in order to do good work in the world.”

The newest members of the Sarah Lawrence community, the class of 2024, begin their academic years with a fall semester unlike any other in College history. While face masks and social distancing are new developments, what continues to be true is that the Sarah Lawrence community is one marked by its empathy and curiosity - people who strive to push themselves academically and explore their varied and broad interests to connect their passions and create their futures.

The Sarah Lawrence College community mourns the death of Joan H. Marks ’51. In 1972, Joan took the helm of what, at the time, was a three-year-old genetic counseling graduate program at Sarah Lawrence—the first in the nation. During her 26 year tenure, she would grow the program to the largest in the nation and blaze the trail for an entirely new field in healthcare, blending the tenets of psychology, advocacy, biology, and medicine in a manner that truly embodied Sarah Lawrence's philosophy of education.

In a job market rocked by COVID-19, Sarah Lawrence alumni answer the call to support the College's newest graduates and fellow alums.

Joining the exceptional Sarah Lawerence faculty this year are three distinguished scholars whose intellectual curiosity and passion for teaching are a perfect match for the College’s dedication and commitment to cross-disciplinary study, deep exploration, and preparation for students to thrive in a rapidly-evolving world.

Norma Jean Darden ‘61, like many Sarah Lawrence alumni, is a “hyphenate”—actor-writer-singer, dancer-mayor, doctor-teacher. Ms. Darden’s combo? High-fashion model turned restaurateur.

Healthcare workers put aside their own safety and travelled to New York City and hot zones across the country. Academics and researchers who study AIDS and viral epidemics set aside their own work for the moment and focused on COVID-19. And in homes and businesses around the world, people turned on sewing machines and retrofitted manufacturing machinery to equip essential workers and the public with precious resources—masks, face shields, hand sanitizer.

This summer, cognizant of the transformative power of education and the institution’s potential for being a stabilizing force in a seemingly unstable world, Sarah Lawrence launched a new initiative with the dual aims of fostering incoming students’ sense of community and enabling them to get a head start on their SLC education. Melissa Frazier, associate dean of the College, leveraged Sarah Lawrence’s remarkable intellectual resources and nimbleness to organize a five-week mini-semester for incoming first-year students. From July 6 to August 7, incoming students had the opportunity to take one or two special courses—remotely, for academic credit, and at no additional cost—taught by SLC’s outstanding faculty.

This fall, students of color at Sarah Lawrence will have a unique opportunity to develop important skills for success on campus and beyond, thanks to the College’s Thrive Mentorship Program for Students of Color.

“The students kept saying, ‘We’re going to keep going,’” recalls Gross. “They were aware, troubled, concerned about the clients at these agencies because they understood what services were no longer being provided, or were going to be adjusted and provided in a different form.”