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Margaret Glenn Sales Semmes, who studied music at Northwestern in the 1940s, was one of 856 women who served in the Women’s Army Corps’ 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, also known as the Six Triple Eight, the only American Army unit comprising all women of color during World War II. They faced a mammoth task: sorting through a multiyear backlog of mail that had yet to be delivered to American soldiers, government personnel and Red Cross workers serving abroad.
At age 8, Sydney Lee ’22 MMus was accepted into The Juilliard School’s pre-college program, and at 13 she made her orchestral debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Now, the award-winning cellist performs around the world, dazzling audiences with her heartfelt, classical music.
Isabella Twocrow interned for 10 weeks with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, working alongside some of the most important decision-makers when it comes to Native American life, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “They’re the people protecting tribal sovereignty through policymaking,” says Twocrow, who is Oglala Lakota and a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and co-chair of Northwestern’s Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance.
Classroom trips brought Northwestern students around the globe to conduct research on the history of midwivery in England, investigate reports of a power plant sickening residents in Panama, study how Israel is becoming a worldwide leader in water management, and more.
In the early 1940s, Northwestern became the first American university to offer a major and master’s degree in marimba. Under the tutelage of renowned marimba virtuoso Clair Omar Musser, several student marimba groups formed at Northwestern, including the Marimba Coeds (also called the Marimba Madcaps), an all-women orchestra.
Take a spin around the globe — from France to Spain, Italy, Qatar and South Korea — and see how Northwestern athletes are competing in cycling, field hockey, basketball and more.
How has COVID-19 impacted the respiratory health of millennials for the long haul? A new study by Northwestern University and the American Lung Association will follow 4,000 adults over the next five years to find out.
On July 24, Lily Williams ’17 MS and her Human Powered Health teammates will begin competing in the inaugural eight-day, 640-mile, 24-team Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. It starts in Paris, features two mountain stages and ends atop La Super Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges Mountains.
The Human Longevity Laboratory is just one part of the ambitious, multicenter Potocsnak Longevity Institute, whose goal is to build on Northwestern’s ongoing research in the rapidly advancing science of aging. “The biological processes that drive aging may be malleable,” says Douglas Vaughan, director of the institute and chair of the Department of Medicine at Feinberg, “and we think we can slow that process down, delay it, even theoretically reverse it.”
Undergraduates have taken on an expanded role at the Block Museum. The student associates now lead public and private tours, facilitate art discussions and even add acquisitions to the museum’s collection.
