WashU Alumni

“They’re my kids. I’m back here to see my kids get their degrees.” ❤️ 🎓 💚

Patty Prewitt, AA '23, BS '25, was the longest-serving incarcerated woman in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Now, at 76, she's a WashU alumna and proud den mother to her former WashU School of Continuing & Professional Studies Prison Education Project (PEP) classmates, like Riana “ReRe” Sanders (below, right).

Days after walking in the May universitywide celebration, Prewitt was on hand as 13 PEP graduates received their degrees during a commencement ceremony held at the women’s correctional center in Vandalia, Missouri.

Explore more stories and photos from the ceremony at the link in the comments.

📸: Tom Malkowicz/

More than 70 years after the late Joseph W. Towle began teaching at WashU, his grandson and great-granddaughter continue to grow their family's longstanding philanthropic support at the university.

Chris Towle, MBA '98, and daughter Hannah Towle Barthelmess, BSBA '16, recently pledged through their family foundation to establish two postdoctoral fellowships for the Food and Agricultural Research Mission (FARM) at the Bursky School of Public Health.

FARM's research on sustainable agriculture resonated with Chris and Hannah, who is the seventh-generation manager of the Towle family farm in Illinois. Their gift fuels the university's efforts to promote healthier lives and flourishing communities through With You: The WashU Campaign.

Read more at the link in the comments.

Keith Hengen's father died of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, right as Keith was launching his career as a neuroscientist.

Today, with a photo of his dad on his desk, Hengen and a handful of other WashU Arts & Sciences researchers are approaching Alzheimer’s from multiple angles to prevent, treat, and ultimately defeat the disease.

Read more about their work at the link in the comments.

Postcards from campus ❤️ 💚

We hope you're having a wonderful summer, Bears!

Is your closet overflowing with your kids' old sports gear? Magdalen Sparrow, MBA '23, might want it. 👟 ⚽ 🥅

Sparrow's nonprofit, Passback, collects, refurbishes, and redistributes sports equipment for kids, particularly those from underserved areas. To date, Passpack has equipped around 7,000 kids with sports gear and recirculated more than 11 tons of plastic and metal items.

Read more from St. Louis Magazine at the link in the comments.

Summer vibes in Bowles Plaza, circa 1982 😎

📸: University Archives

“We are strategically designing for a future-ready public health workforce.”

WashU Bursky Public Health recently earned accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health, the culmination of more than two years of work to establish the school’s academic foundation and demonstrate compliance with national standards.

Learn more at the link in the comments. ⬇️

Erica Barnell, MD '23, PhD '23, first felt the spark of entrepreneurship while attending WashU Medicine. Today, the biotech company she co-founded, Geneoscopy, is on the verge of revolutionizing colorectal cancer screening nationwide.

Read more from the-STL at the link in the comments. ⬇️

For more than a decade, Jason Green, AB '03, sat and listened to his elders, starting with his grandmother and, eventually, nearly 80 other residents of his Maryland hometown.

His new memoir, "Too Precious to Lose," tells their stories and celebrates the power of embracing community during tumultuous times.

Read more in WashU Magazine at the link in the comments. ⬇️

✍️ Meet one of WashU's oldest alums.

At 100, Carlo Bruno, BS '65, remains as sharp as the No. 2 pencils he carries with him to sketch his surroundings. A first-generation American and the son of Italian immigrants, Bruno has hundreds of stories to match the drawings he keeps in his apartment, from escaping Mussolini’s secret police in Fascist Italy in 1935, to earning a WashU degree by taking night classes for 19 years.

Read more in WashU Magazine at the link in the comments.