During a long, cold Winter Break in the midst of the pandemic, more than 50 Vassar students, faculty, and administrators gathered on Zoom to take part in the first ever Grand Challenges Winter Creative Project. Participants learned to crochet and used those skills to build a massive crocheted “coral reef” to demonstrate the need to address climate change.

This year, the alumnae/i association, AAVC, turns 150. Throughout 2021, the College will be celebrating this anniversary by highlighting a few of Vassar’s most notable alumnae/i in architecture, arts, business, education, entertainment, healthcare, humanitarian efforts, law, social justice, and technology. This month, we focus on two alumnae/i attorneys who are working to create a more just society.

Last summer, as people took to the streets to protest racism in the United States, Bishop Joseph Tolton ’89 saw an opportunity to unite people across continents. People in the U.S. had come together to tell their story in the hopes of changing policy on the domestic front. He thought: What if members of the African diaspora around the world united to do the same on the global front?