对于美国在美国的广泛艺术教育的所有挑战中，世界上迅速崛起 - 提醒Wellesley提供的巨大力量。
我很高兴在我最近的印度之旅中看到这首第一手，我花了一些真正杰出的Wellesley alumnae和父母。我的第一个停止是阿什科瓦大学，在德里以外的学习中学的充满活力的绿洲。Ashoka旨在成为2014年2014年，Ashoka旨在成为印度第一家私人常春藤联盟 - 口径艺术机构，是精英技术研究所的替代品，这些研究所长期以来占据了印度高等教育。在其创始人中 - 唯一的女性是Harshbeena Sahney Zaveri '82，NRB轴承有限公司的副主席和董事总经理。
空气中的兴奋是可触及的。正如我与Ashoka教师和学生谈话的那样，当我听取他们的故事时，我觉得我认为我的目击者是深刻的重要意义：自由艺术教育的拥抱作为推进全国各界的力量。它不仅仅是在校园里。在我的旅行中，我一次又一次地听到了这一点，表达了很好的感觉。
I felt that I was bearing witness to something profoundly important: the embrace of liberal arts education as a force to advance all sectors of a nation.
Significantly, this excitement extends well beyond Ashoka. Elsewhere in India, FLAME University carries the liberal arts banner, hosting Wellesley students for study abroad on its Pune campus. More broadly, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Ghana are all countries where the liberal arts model is gaining traction.
什么是driving this trend? Supporters point to a growing need for creative problem-solvers—innovators who can work and think across disciplines, communicate well, and operate effectively and ethically in fast-changing landscapes. These are among the aptitudes that a liberal arts education cultivates. (If any further proof were needed, it could be found in members of Wellesley’s Business Leadership Council—several of whom are from India. I was delighted to cross paths with the BLC at Ashoka as they wound up their own cultural tour.)
The fact that business leaders around the world have bet on the liberal arts model is compelling evidence of its vitality. Notably, many are themselves graduates of liberal arts institutions. They’ve seen the impact of liberal arts education in their own lives and careers, its power to respond to the world’s most urgent challenges.
Throughout my time in India, I was struck by just how much we agree on what these challenges are.
它们包括妇女的安全，尊严和机会的权利。它们包括气候变化和可持续性，特别是与妇女和女孩有关。(I had a chance to dive into this issue with a group of experts convened by Wellesley parent Vaishali Nigam Sinha, chief sustainability, responsibility, and communications officer for ReNew Power, India’s leading renewable energy company.) And they include global threats to democracy, a topic eloquently addressed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59 in her 2018 bestsellerFascism: A Warning.
Shortly before I left for India, the eminent writer Nayantara Pandit Sahgal ’47 was disinvited to a prestigious Indian literary event due to her public stands against rising intolerance and sectarian violence. Such controversy is nothing new to Sahgal, now in her 90s, who throughout her life has used her voice on behalf of women, freedom of expression, and democracy.
I was moved—though not surprised—to learn how Wellesley helped to shape the woman Sahgal became. In an essay collection published by the Wellesley College Club of Los Angeles, she reflected on how her college years imbued her with a sense of freedom. “It was a fatal discovery that entered into my very bones,” she wrote. “I knew that never in any circumstances, personal or national, whether in my capacity as student, or later as wife, mother, or citizen, would I let it go. The freedom to be was what life was all about.”
The freedom to be was what life was all about. Amid the dangers and uncertainties of our time, the liberal arts continue to show the way forward. History affirms our vision. The future demands that it grow.
