Twelve Barnard Moments from 2024

With Barbie fever burning up Hollywood nearly eight months after its May release (and becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2023), the film’s director, Greta Gerwig ’06, and her cast and crew racked up nine Golden Globe nominations, the most for any project this year — and won six. At the Emmys, Sarah Botstein ’94 was a nominee for The U.S. and the Holocaust, and Donna Zakowska ’75 was nominated — her fifth nod in six years! — for her costume styling on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

At the historic Riverside Church near campus, Barnard officially launched a new era for the College with the inauguration of Laura Ann Rosenbury as its ninth president.

Co-sponsored by Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and Women and Hollywood, this year’s festival continued to create narrative change with a wide variety of programming that included stories centering women’s sports, Indigenous perspectives, reproductive justice, disability representation, and more.

As the moon passed between the sun and Earth, darkening the bright midafternoon sky, the Physics and Astronomy Department and Residential Life and Housing made sure students had protective glasses to safely view the solar show from their spots on Futter Field.

Marking the biggest milestone of the academic year, educator Ruth J. Simmons gave the keynote address at Commencement to the more than 800 graduates and 4,700 family members in attendance at Radio City Music Hall.

The Summer Research Institute (SRI) celebrated a decade as one of NYC’s most standout programs for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), especially for young women scientists, since its launch in 2014.

This year, Barnard had not one, but four, alumnae — USA Skateboarding coach Alexis Sablone ’08, manufacturing partner Gabrielle Ferrara ’12, Olympic Torch Relay performer Sarah Silverblatt-Buser ’15, and tandem cyclist Skyler Samuelson Espinoza ’17 — who helped Team USA score points at the world’s biggest games.

The start of the academic year is all about tradition, and the College began by introducing the 721 first-years who joined the Class of 2028 to the community, and to campus through the New Student Orientation Program (NSOP). At Convocation, approximately 1,700 people cheered with excitement at Riverside Church to officially mark the start of the semester.
 

In support of the Barnard Annual Fund, which offers students critical financial aid and enhances the Barnard experience in myriad ways, the College’s global community rallied for Giving Day 2024, placing the College in second place for most gifts — ahead of Columbia College.

Serendipity was at work when the Zora Neale Hurston Trust announced that Barnard would host the first Zora Neale Hurston Summit (January 31–February 1, 2025) at the same time the College was preparing to celebrate her centennial anniversary as the first Black student on campus (1925–1928).

The Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being opens to offer community members an integrated, 360-degree approach to physical, mental, and financial well-being.

In the days leading up to the country electing a new president, the College launched its own voting resource — Barnard Votes — and then published a package that included stories challenging the perception of Latino voters, showcasing professor of practice in architecture Kadambari Baxi’s Trigger Planting 2.0 exhibition, explaining how professors teach about elections and understanding the polls, and much more.