WashU’s collaborative spirit nurtures rising star
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WashU connections, alive and well
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Creating in community
In many ways, Olivia Baba, BFA ’23, was the quintessential, multitalented applicant to WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. She had cultivated her passion for and skills in fashion design from an early age — asking her mom to take sewing classes when she was just 7 years old and spending her remaining childhood under the tutelage of a series of seamstresses, boutique owners, and clothing designers in the Bay Area.
Advocating for access: ‘The journey continues’
Music brought Larry Thomas, BSBA ’77, to WashU — the Vicksburg, Mississippi, native became smitten with the campus after staying on the South 40 during a high school band competition. Personal connections and mentors helped him succeed. And passion for greater access to a WashU education keeps him engaged in a lifelong relationship with the university.
Giving from the heart
Mandee Polonsky, AB ’00, and her husband, Jonathan Polonsky, AB ’98, are both proud Chicago natives with deep family roots in the Windy City. Their story, however, begins in a different Midwestern city: St. Louis, and at WashU, specifically, where the two met at a fraternity party through Jonathan’s identical twin brother Daniel Polonsky, AB ’98. They were both students in Arts & Sciences — Mandee was studying political science and anthropology, and Jonathan, economics.
At the intersection of data, climate, and human health
In 2024, Bo Li joined Arts & Sciences as the Stanley A. Sawyer Professor in Statistics and Data Science. Her professorship — coming soon after the department’s formation — signals WashU’s deepening commitment to high-impact, transdisciplinary scholarship.
Internships shape a career path
Ariel Nochez came to WashU in August 2022 with a passion for technology. Since then, through studies on the Danforth Campus and far beyond it, he has been layering on new interests, forging a service-oriented career path that bridges disciplines. A student in the McKelvey School of Engineering, he is majoring in data science and linguistics with a minor in speech and hearing sciences.
Movement as medicine
At age 88, Professor Emerita of Physical Therapy Shirley Sahrmann, BS ’58, MA ’71, PhD ’73, PT, FAPTA, is still as passionate about advancing the field as she was when she joined the WashU faculty in 1961. Now retired, the revered educator of more than five decades — whose scholarship has shaped what it means to practice physical therapy today — continues to advocate for the role of movement in preventing illness and fostering healthier lives.
Seizing opportunity, advocating for change
Melanie Goldring, AB ’17, MSP ’19, MSW ’19, has always been driven and tenacious. Throughout her life and career, she has found ways to make productive use of challenges, leaning into the experiences that present themselves and maximizing their inherent opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Leading through connection: From research to advocacy
Tiffany Zhu, Class of 2026, is the first in her family to attend college. Well into her fourth year, she is still drawing deeply on the opportunities that WashU provides. In doing so, she is positioning herself to become a leading public health physician, committed to creating a system of holistic care so that more people feel connected to healthcare.