The Southwestern Review is the college’s literary journal produced by Rhodes students, and its goal is to publish work—including literature and art—that inspires original thought, community-building, and support for creative expression. The launch party for the 2024 edition will be Tuesday, April 16, at 5:30 p.m. in Hardie Auditorium and will include music, readings, food, and copies of the new issue.

Members of the Rhodes community celebrated Rhodes Giving Day on April 10—raising $270,033 and 1,340 gifts—a new record for Rhodes for number of gifts made in one day. Dozens of volunteers helped drive the challenge to success.

Rhodes College senior Riley Damiano from Patterson, NY, has a big decision to make. She’s been offered a competitive Fulbright research grant by the Netherland-America Foundation. Does she want to accept it and work in the Netherlands right after graduation, or will she choose the award she’s been offered by the National Cancer Institute to conduct research there?

Rhodes enjoys a range of Shakespeare-related resources thanks to a generous bequest from the late Dr. Iris Annette Pearce. The Pearce Shakespeare Endowment was established in 2007 to enrich courses in Shakespeare and support events for the campus. This month on campus, the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment is sponsoring a visit by two Harvard University scholars—Dr. Marjorie Garber and Dr. Martin Puchner.

Rhodes alums Kelsey Rena Glasper ‘21, Eraine Leland ’21, and Scotty Wicker '22 have been selected to receive the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) following a national competition. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. Fellowships provide the recipient with a three-year annual stipend of $37,000, as well as access to opportunities for professional development.

Chemistry major Kathryn Edwards ’24 recently won first place in the research poster competition at the spring meeting of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. She presented her research project “Acid Rain: The Global Issue Forgotten,” which she is completing in her senior seminar course taught by Dr. Ramesh Sapkota.

Dr. Shaolu Yu, associate professor of urban studies and chair of Asian studies at Rhodes, has been selected as one of the faculty associates to work on the project Documenting Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Voices and Stories: Community-based Digital Story Telling in St. Louis. The three-year project was initiated by ASIANetwork and is supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Taylor Tucker of local NBC affiliate WMC/Action News 5 recently visited campus to interview Rhodes students Asya Bray, Erin Parker, and Arness Georgetown and President Jennifer Collins about the new National Pan-Hellenic Council Plaza that pays tribute to historically Black sororities and fraternities.

Brooke Taylor, a senior international studies and environmental studies double major from Austin, TX, has been awarded The Steve and Riea Lainoff Crop Trust Fellowship in Honor of Cary Fowler ’71. The fellowship is made possible through the generosity of Steve and Riea Lainoff, parents of Rhodes graduates Brian Lainoff ’11 and Mark Lainoff ’15.

Rhodes College is joining an elite cohort from Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, University of Southern California, and University of California, Los Angeles, as the only mock trial programs having both their A and B teams advance to the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) National Championship Tournament to be held April 19-21 in Chicago.