Wendy Posts It

Wendy Posts It

Wellesley

Autumn 2014

The Wellesley network went into high gear when it moved onto Facebook. On “community,” alumnae dole out advice, provide support through crises, and form lasting bonds. And then there are the stories that are the stuff of legend.  

Alice Kunce ’05 had never been so scared. Her younger sister lay in a hospital bed with the deathly pallor of a wax figure. Ellen, then 21, had been born with a malformed heart and had undergone numerous surgeries, including the installation of a mechanical valve when she was 10. Because of her sister’s condition, Kunce and her family were no strangers to hospitals. But this time was different because the doctors didn’t have a plan.


A bacterial infection had sent Ellen to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with sudden congestive heart failure. In such cases, antibiotics would typically kill the infection, but Ellen had proved allergic to the standard class of medicines. The physicians said that if left untreated, the infection would slowly kill her.

Ellen’s doctor, a young, bleary-eyed resident, had given her the hospital’s last dose of streptomycin, an older antibiotic normally used to treat tuberculosis in the developing world, and it seemed to be working. However, as the doctor informed Kunce and her family, he was unable to get any more.
“What do you mean you can’t get any more?” screeched Kunce. “This is one of the top cardiac-care facilities in the world.”

“I mean, this drug is not available,” the doctor told her. “We don’t have it. We can’t get it. You can even put it on Facebook, but this medicine does not exist.”

But “put it on Facebook” is just what Kunce did. On the group called Community for Wellesley Alums in Withdrawal, which had been started a few months before, Kunce posted a message that began: “***Who has drug connections??***” After explaining her sister’s situation, she closed, “I am reaching out and activating the Wellesley Network!! Please, crosspost as necessary!!! Streptomycin. 1 gram per vial. 1 vial per day.”

Then she went to sleep.

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The Expert: What I know about ... Diamonds

The Expert: What I know about ... Diamonds
Avenue Edmonton
May 2014

If you've never seen a diamond in the flesh, Graham Pearson can describe them in detail

Who: Graham Pearson
Age: 48
Job: Geologist

Experience: He has been chased by polar bears in the Northwest Territories, ostriches in South Africa and a nine-foot-long cobra in Namibia — all while in pursuit of diamonds. As the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Resources at the University of Alberta, he routinely travels the world gathering samples from deep inside the earth’s crust that tell him how diamonds form, where they come from and how old they are.

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Perfect Vision

Perfect Vision

Avenue Edmonton
April 2014

Two globetrotters create a home base that keeps them coming back, no matter where they go

Sitting in Larry Louie and Joanna Wong’s sleek living room in Rossdale — carefully curated with their collection of fine art, photographs and artifacts collected on their travels — you might feel you were sitting in the lobby of an international  boutique hotel.

But that’s just what these consummate globetrotters were looking for in a home. In addition to being an optometrist, Louie is an award-winning documentary photographer and, over the years, his work has taken the couple to places like Nepal, Tibet, Jordan, Mali and Indonesia, just to name a few.

“The minimalist look, simple lines — that’s what inspired us to create a more modern-looking house,” explains Louie.

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The Grand Experiment

The Grand Experiment
Wellesley
Winter 2014

Can what’s special about Wellesley classes be translated into digital courses for thousands?

Last September, for the first time in 10 years, I enrolled in a Wellesley class. But instead of walking across the leaf-strewn green and through the doors of Pendleton East, I logged on to Anthropology 207x from my home computer, while balancing a baby in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

For the next several months, my newborn daughter and I, and roughly 19,250 other people around the world, participated in the College’s grand experiment in online education. In the past two years, higher education has been shaken to its core, and those vibrations have been felt even in the hallowed halls of Wellesley College. And it’s all because of a little four-letter word: MOOC (rhymes with “spook”).

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