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People & Profiles

Growing up, Cristina Henríquez ’99 would regularly visit Panama, her father’s home country, on family trips. Those experiences inform her latest novel, The Great Divide, which follows three characters whose lives intersect during the construction of the Panama Canal.

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A photograph of The Great Divide book, which is angled slightly to the right. The book cover has a primarily red background with geometric green and yellow plants, flowers and frogs scattered around the title and the author’s name.

Evil Eyes Sea

Fall 2024
In this Q&A, Özge Samanci shares the inspiration for her new graphic novel, Evil Eyes Sea, which was published in summer 2024. Inspired in part by Samanci’s real-life experiences, the book examines political corruption, friendships and the threat of the male gaze.

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A mixed media illustration depicts a woman wearing a black long sleeve turtleneck with an evil eye in place of her head and Medusa-like snakes for hair against a blue background resembling water.
Stage adaptations of books, movies and even music albums are nothing new. But this spring Christina Rosales ’11 brought an unusual production to Northwestern’s Wirtz Center Chicago: a stage adaptation of a video game.

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Two characters from the show Dot’s Home Live converse onstage. On the left is Mr. Murphy, a white man wearing a brown suit jacket and tan slacks and holding a black folder. On the left is Dot, a Black woman wearing a red top and white pants, pointing her finger at Mr. Murphy.
A week after filmmaker Gail Gilbert ’81, ’18 MFA brought home her new lab puppy, he suddenly lost the ability to walk. Upon discovering that four other puppies from the litter were similarly affected, Gilbert documented their rehabilitation process in the new documentary, Puppy Love.

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A woman poses with her yellow labrador retriever outside a building with a sign that reads, The AKC Museum of the Dog.
Members of the Class of 2024 share their memorable moments, favorite projects and more.

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Grads to Celebrate Hero Final

Good Riddance

Spring 2024
The Metzger family’s efforts to cut down on household waste led Ryan Metzger ’01, ’09 MBA to co-found Ridwell, a multicity recycling operation. Since 2018, Ridwell has helped divert more than 21 million pounds of plastic and other hard-to-recycle materials from the waste stream.

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Ridwell founders Ryan Metzger, Aliya Marder, Justin Gough and David Dawson stand outside holding a variety of recyclable items and a Ridwell recycling container.
Erica Bethe Levin ’05 founded Globowl, a company that creates baby and toddler food featuring flavors from around the world. Diversifying babies’ palates early on can help stave off picky eating and mitigate food allergies down the road, she says.

Get a taste

A jar of Globowl baby food alongside a small spoon and assorted food items.
Northwestern community members share the wisdom they learned the hard way.

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Scissors cutting through a piece of paper that says “I can’t do it.”
Northwestern professor Melissa Foster ’96, ’01 MMus believes rap music should be accessible to everyone. She explains why she finds the genre so inspiring — and why learning its history is critical to becoming a good rapper.

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Michelle Foster leans against a brick wall, wearing a white turtleneck top, oblong hoop earrings and a necklace. She is smiling and holding a copy of her book.

Timeless Threads

Spring 2024
In her senior honors thesis, art history major Elizabeth Dudley explores the influence of technology — from the invention of the sewing machine to the rise of social media — on fashion and aesthetic trends. She focuses on cottagecore, an aesthetic reflecting a pastoral way of life that exploded in popularity during the pandemic.

Learn about cottagecore

Elizabeth Dudley smiles in a forested area wearing a floral crown and an off-shoulder smocked white top with a dark pink spaghetti-strapped dress over it.