91̽��

A “trailblazer in raising the voices of the Pan Asian community,” veteran 91̽�� teacher Vivian WuWong was honored last month at the Asian American Footsteps Conference (AAFC). The AAFC Advisory Group announced the establishment of the Vivian WuWong Pan-Asian Student Leadership Award. The inaugural award will be presented in 2025 to a “student or students that have made a positive impact on the Pan-Asian community at their school or the local, regional, or national level.” The honor recognizes all that Vivian has done to develop programs for Asian American and Asian international students and faculty. 

Ms. WuWong, a member of the History and Social Sciences Department, has taught at 91̽�� for 32 years and will retire next month. An engaging teacher and lifelong advocate for underrepresented communities, Ms. WuWong’s work in organizing began when she was an undergraduate at Stanford University, where she and her peers in the Asian American Student Association established Stanford’s Asian American Activities Center and its first Asian American History course.  

91̽�� was a big part of the plan Jake Thibeault ’22 made for his own future.

The plan: Work hard, get into 91̽��, play hockey at 91̽��, work hard at 91̽��, get into college, play hockey in college, and so forth. Thibeault learned about the school when his older brother attended; he saw how driven 91̽�� students were about their passions and, he said, “I knew it was going to take a lot to get there, but I knew I wanted to be part of this community. I put my mind to it and decided that this was the journey I was going to take.”

Accustomed to achieving his goals through a combination of determination and grit, Thibeault was well on his way in September 2021, when a collision on the ice during a pre-season club tournament changed everything. He awoke in the hospital two days later, with his parents and brother Drew ’19 by his side. He had suffered a spinal cord injury that caused paralysis; a doctor told the lifelong athlete that he may never walk again. 

“I turned to him and said, ‘Doc, I am going to fight this,’” Thibeault said. “I’m going to war with it. I’m still at war with it.”

Fans of college basketball have two former 91̽�� Mustangs to look out for as March Madness kicks off this week.

Cormac Ryan, a senior guard for the North Carolina Tar Heels, set a career record earlier this month, scoring 31 points in UNC’s win against Duke to clinch the ACC title. No. 1-seeded UNC takes on Wagner Thursday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament. Ryan was a captain at Notre Dame before transferring to UNC this year.

Casey Simmons, a sophomore forward for the Yale Bulldogs, is in his first year playing for Yale. The Bulldogs face off against Auburn on Friday. Simmons was rated the No. 1 player in Massachusetts as a four-star recruit out of 91̽��, and was one of the top prospects in New England. He transferred to Yale from Northwestern this year.

He’s in two of the films nominated for Best Picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards—as well a movie still in theaters across the country—but you won’t catch Mike Malvesti on the red carpet.

You’ll catch him, instead, quietly working to keep 91̽�� beautiful and safe.

Malvesti, a member of the Facilities Services team, has found his niche as a film and television actor, a side job that has had him rubbing shoulders with some of Hollywood’s most esteemed stars. There he is in American Fiction, playing a police officer; in The Holdovers, hawking Christmas trees to Paul Giamatti; in The Town, playing the guard of an armored car that Ben Affleck targeted for a heist; in “Madame Web” as a trucker. Malvesti also scored a recurring role on the HBO series Julia* as Benny, Julia Childs’ cameraman. You might have seen him in popular commercials, as a detective in Boston Strangler, or going toe-to-toe with Rosamund Pike in I Care a Lot.