WMU College of Arts and Sciences

Students in WMU's Geology Club just got back from the trip of a lifetime. ✈️

This year's club trip was to Iceland! Our instructors and students explored its glaciers and waterfalls and snorkeled in the Silfra Fissure where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

As the oldest registered student organization on campus, the Geology Club was named the national student chapter of the American Institute of Professional Geologists for three consecutive years. ⚒️

Don't miss out on this experience next year! The WMU Geology Club is open to students of all majors with an interest in geology and Earth sciences. 🌍 🪨

Read more about Geology Club: https://wmich.edu/geology/about/student-organizations

Please join us in supporting the Dr. Benjamin C. Wilson Jr. Memorial Scholarship Endowment in honor of the late Dr. Benjamin C. Wilson, Jr., professor emeritus of 30 years and founder of the Black Americana Studies Program (now known as the African American and African Studies Program) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University.

These funds will provide scholarships to History and African American Studies students who are passionate about African American and African History.

We proud to see this endowment fully funded, and we encourage everyone to help us grow this legacy over Juneteenth weekend! 🏆

📅 Saturday, June 20
📍 Crestview Golf Club Kalamazoo

This week, we were honored to welcome Mr. D.W. Kim '62 and his family back to campus! 🎉

Kim's bachelor's degree in chemistry from WMU, followed by a degree in biochemistry from Wayne State University, gave him the foundation to tackle complex scientific and legal issues throughout a successful career in chemistry and patent law. 🔬

Originally from Korea, he was sponsored by family friends he met in Seoul. The people who have helped him along the way inspired him to give back to the WMU Chemistry Department, where his legacy gifts will help students for generations to come.

Thank you to the Kim family for their deep generosity and commitment to science and education! 👏

Hands-on learning rocks. 🎸

Playwright, English professor and lifelong rock fan Dr. Steve Feffer has used music to teach history in the interdisciplinary course “The Vietnam War in Rock and Soul” for nine years. His students have listened to songs from the period, made playlists based on the soldiers' experiences and formed bands to immerse themselves in the war's cultural context. 🎶

The class inspired Feffer to pursue his current research project, a book tracing the Vietnam War's appearance in Bruce Springsteen's music.

Read more at: https://wmich.edu/arts-sciences/news/2026/06/vietnam-war-music

Please join us in supporting the Marc Henry Simon Memorial Endowed Scholarship at our annual golf outing fundraiser. ⛳

Marc graduated from Western Michigan University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in communication studies from the College of Arts and Sciences. Unfortunately, he passed away in November 2013. Marc’s scholarship honors a student who demonstrates a capacity for leadership at the university and in the community and who also demonstrates a great capacity for joy.

📅 Saturday, June 13, 2026
📍 Wheatfield Valley Golf Course, Williamston, MI

Student Spotlight 📣

Bincy Binny, a doctoral student studying chemistry, chose WMU for its research opportunities and is making advances in mass spectrometry, a tool that impacts daily life in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to food safety. 🔬

She has contributed over five scholarly publications and earned the People’s Choice Award at the 2025 3-Minute Thesis competition, as well as the All-University Graduate Student Teaching Effectiveness Award.

“Once I arrived, I realized just how welcoming and supportive all the faculty, staff and students were. That sense of community, combined with the diversity of international students, made WMU feel like the right place for both my academic and personal growth.” 🏆

🔗 Read more: https://wmich.edu/international/news/2026/05/international-chemistry-binny

We are celebrating our Spring 2026 graduates all summer long! 🌞👨‍🎓💫🤎

Aidan Ralko — a film, video and media studies major — made the most of his four years at WMU. From RSOs, to multiple internships, to travel abroad, to directing his own short film as his thesis, Aidan's experience has been transformed by experience-driven learning.

“Western prepared me for the future by presenting me with opportunity,” he says. “You have to actively pursue those opportunities; they’re not just given to you. But here at Western, if you’re willing to take that step, you have a support system while you pursue them.”

Read more about Aidan at the link in our bio!

🔦 Alumni spotlight: Department of Political Sciences ⚖️

In the last few years, several Political Science alumni have won university-wide teaching awards at their schools, reflecting the department's strengths in the academic marketplace for training effective and innovative faculty.

These awardees include:

- Manuel Soque B.A. '22: Wittenberg University, 2026 Collegium Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching

- Brittany Brake Ph.D. '25: Central State University, 2024 President’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching

- Sheri Rogers M.A. '04, Grand Valley State University, 2023 Pew Teaching Excellence Award for Adjunct Faculty

- Ekaterina Levintova Ph.D '19, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2021 Regents Teaching Excellence Award; 2019 UW-Green Bay Founders Award for Excellence in Teaching

We are incredible proud to have such outstanding alumni representing WMU CAS at universities across the nation. 💫

Congratulations to the 2025-26 All-University Graduate Research and Creative Scholarship and Graduate Teaching Effectiveness Award winners!🎉

This is the highest honor that WMU bestows on graduate students. Departments nominated only one student at the master's and doctoral levels, and the Graduate Studies Council selected the winners. A majority of the winners were College of Arts and Sciences students, and we couldn't be prouder! 💫

Click here for a list of the All-University and department-level winners: https://lnkd.in/db7zMgu

Congratulations to the newest 2,300 WMU students who became alumni this past weekend! 🤎💫

We know this wasn't always an easy journey — maybe it took hundreds of pages typed, long nights spent in Waldo Library, or lab goggles permanently imprinted on your face to get you there — but you did it nonetheless! 🥳

Go out and do great things — we can't wait to see you make your mark on the world.

(P.S. For the graduates who attended our pre-commencement Meet the Dean event, download your photos via this gallery: http://bit.ly/4cRHt4M