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Vassar’s Office of Health Promotion and Education Receives New Mental Health First Aid Pilot Program Grant

Andrea Pesavento in Vassar’s Office of Health Promotion and Education received a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Higher Ed/Harm Reduction Pilot program grant through the NYS Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors. This program is training MHFA instructors at five participating colleges who will then lead sessions for students, faculty, and staff.

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The Loeb Awarded New Grant to Travel Rollie McKenna ’40 Photography Exhibition

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was awarded an additional grant by The Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation in support of an effort with the Center for Creative Photography (University of Arizona, Tucson) to share the collaborative exhibition Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna with audiences in the southwestern U.S. The exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of the photography of illustrious Vassar alumna Rosalie (“Rollie”) McKenna, Class of 1940.

Vassar College Costume Collection: Hidden Treasures That Shed Light on Our History

Hundreds of garments, some of them nearly 200 years old, are housed in the basement of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. They are being used to help students gain insights into life in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Photo diptych with headshots of Chris Bjork and Bill Hoynes.

Christopher Bjork, Professor of Education, and William Hoynes, Professor of Sociology, Publish New Book

Christopher Bjork, Chair and Professor of Education on the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Chair and Coordinator of Teacher Education, and William Hoynes, Professor of Sociology on the Jane Baker Nord ’42 Chair in Media Studies, are the authors of the recently published More than Just a Game: How the Youth Sports Industry Is Changing the Way We Parent and What to Do About It, published by Central Recovery Press.

Kahdeidra Monét Martin, Assistant Professor of Education, Selected for 2024–2026 STAR Fellowship

Kahdeidra Monét Martin, Assistant Professor of Education, was selected by the Literacy Research Association as a 2024–2025 STAR (Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions) Fellow. Kahdeidra’s research, which explores strategies for culturally sustaining literacy instruction, uses qualitative and community-participatory methods to examine raciolinguistics and the co-naturalization of language, race, and spirituality in the lives of African descendant people globally.

Illustration of a ground hog wearing sunglasses with text that reads: Sustainability @ Vassar @ECO_VC.

Office of Sustainability Receives Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps Summer Fellow Support

Kenneth Foster, Director of Sustainability, received a grant from the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps fellowship program to host a summer fellow. EDF’s Climate Corps is a “hands-on summer program” where graduate students are matched with top companies and nonprofit organizations to advance climate and energy goals. Vassar has hosted multiple EDF summer fellows since 2014.

Sumita Choudhury, Professor of History, Selected for Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Membership

Mita Choudhury, Professor of History on the Evalyn Clark Chair, was selected by the Faculty in the School of Historical Studies for membership at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) during the 2025–26 academic year. In her fellowship term, she will be completing her book project entitled The Silent Chain: History and Reckoning in the Catholic Church, which focuses on the early modern French Church and centers sexual assault victims as relevant historical figures.

Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Associate Professor of Religion, Publishes New Book Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France

Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Associate Professor of Religion, is the author of Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France, appearing in March 2025 with University of Chicago Press. In her new book, she argues that dissent and argument can be potent forms of solidarity through an ethnography of French Muslim activism and close readings of recent French laws on religion.

Three people with shovels digging around a newly planted tree.

Vassar’s Preserve Receives Grant for “Sowing Seeds of Engagement: Meadow Restoration Demonstration Area”

Keri VanCamp, Director of the Preserve at Vassar–in collaboration with Jen Rubbo, Director of the Environmental Cooperative; Dean Jaeger, Grounds Manager; Evan Lasher, Grounds Foreman; and Ethan Skuches, Vassar-Kenauk Conservation Fellow–was selected by the Partners for Climate Action (PCA) for an Ecological Restoration Grant supporting creative and engaging ways to support pollinators through native meadow restoration in the Hudson Valley bioregion.