News about Scripps College and the Scripps community.

In January, the College kicked off Scripps Presents: Conversations, a public events series that explores the lives and work of prominent thinkers and doers.

This spring, the Scripps College Board of Trustees welcomed four new members: Dr. Patricia Y. Fechner, Patricia “Trish” Jackson ’82, Gale Picker P’14, P’19, and Lucinda Bowen Smith ’88.

Scripps’ Career Planning & Resources (CP&R) office extends internship grants based on the strength of the applications and the funds available from endowment income and annual gifts. The process requires making tough decisions about which Scripps students are best prepared to search for and secure internships that will help them reach their career goals.

When Stephanie Probst Rasines '71 passed away in January from complications of pancreatic cancer, she was remembered as a devoted wife and mother, an accomplished attorney, a passionate advocate for immigrants’ rights, and a dedicated Scripps classmate, alumna, and Board member. However, Stephanie’s story almost didn’t include Scripps.

Lara Deeb, professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Anthropology, sits at her desk in an office brimming with books and DVDs that reflect her scholarly area, Middle Eastern studies. Her shelves contain copies of her own latest publication, Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (2015), which looks at the ways in which anthropological study of the Middle East has evolved alongside the national and global political landscape.

There’s no question that technology in higher education has come a long way. Today’s undergraduates carry smartphones everywhere, and the latest higher-education trends include once-unheard-of technologies and teaching methods. Virtual reality, flipped classrooms (in which students access video and other materials outside class to reserve class time for problem solving), and blended learning that combines online and face-to-face education are just a few.

I graduated into a challenging time; after 9/11, many studios put a freeze on all new hires. I jumped into an industry—video games—I knew nothing about. I wasn’t even allowed to play video games as a kid! I learned quickly that not every job is going to be your favorite, but it’s important to figure out what you can learn, what you can take away, and what you want to leave behind.

If you had told me while I was a first-year student that one day in the future, this new social website (Facebook) would acquire a virtual-reality headset company (Oculus) that would revolutionize our world, and I would be a part of that revolution, I would have thought you were crazy. But here we are.

Like many Scrippsies, I have many interests—economics, foreign languages, philosophy, the list goes on and on. The graduation requirement at Scripps was 32 credits, but I ended up with 42 credits when I left! I actually stumbled upon cognitive science and computer science during my second year of college. They both fascinated me, and I had a hard time deciding which one to major in, so I decided to major in both.

My media studies thesis was called Beneath Still Waters: An Exploration of Transmedia Narratives and Twitter Fiction. When I was thinking about the kind of project I wanted to complete during my senior year, it was important to me to combine my media studies knowledge with my minor in creative writing. I developed a strong interest in digital and social media and the way it shapes our culture and influences new methods of storytelling.

Looking back over my nine-month tenure as interim president, I’m amazed at how much the Scripps community has accomplished. The care that staff, faculty, students, alumnae, and parents have for the College is evident in their unrelenting work ethic and hours spent in activities that strengthen our community.

Midway through our interview at her home in Arcadia, California, Susan Finley ’58 says, somewhat embarrassedly, “You won’t believe it, but my daughter-in-law called me the other day to tell me that I have a Wikipedia page! I can’t imagine who set it up.”

Little did I know, walking down Elm Tree Lawn in my cap and gown in 1995, that I would spend my first two decades after Scripps in the high-tech industry.

The latest news from Scripps alumnae around the world.

Back in the early 1960s, Scripps did not offer courses in science and math. The concentration at the College was the humanities and arts. I was somewhat of a renegade and chose a math major, which I was able to pursue because of the collaboration of The Claremont Colleges.

As parents, we are interested in exploring the technologies available to help maintain our connections with our daughter, Sara ’17, and the College community. While we were already aware of some of these tools, we learned more as we prepared this letter.

Is keeping pets actually good for the pets themselves? That’s the question that animates bioethicist Jessica Pierce’s new book.