Wesleyan University

Jesse Chang-Frieden '27, an environmental sciences and environmental studies and earth double major with an IDEAS minor, is the first Wesleyan student to receive the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship since the program's founding in 1992. The program identifies future leaders in environmental, Tribal public policy, and health care fields.

Jesse studies how landscapes and communities can recover from environmental disasters. His work combines satellite remote sensing, in situ sampling, and environmental policy to improve responses to wildfires, water contamination, and urban heat. He has worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Wesleyan’s Forests and Global Change Lab, where he developed models to assess post-fire water contamination. This summer, he will continue creating computer models with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to evaluate the most effective methods for cooling outdoor urban areas, while making the science behind these models more accessible to both researchers and the public.

Humans of Wesleyan 🎬3️⃣3️⃣

"I was always both hyper-competitive and intellectually curious. I was also a French major at Smith College, which is not exactly the traditional pipeline into finance. After Smith, I worked in consulting while training for the National Rowing Team. After competing internationally for four years, I went to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and eventually spent nine years in investment banking working with tech companies.

But even then, I was always less interested in finance as “money” and more interested in it as this giant intellectual puzzle. That’s what I still love about investing. The world is basically your oyster intellectually. One day you’re reading about geopolitics, the next day artificial intelligence, energy markets, or consumer psychology. Markets are really just humanity in motion—fear, greed, optimism, panic, creativity. I love reading widely and connecting ideas across disciplines. Investing rewards that kind of curiosity.

What made this work especially meaningful was doing it at Wesleyan. Eight members of my family have graduated from here, so when I walk across campus, I don’t just see an institution—I see family history.

When I started as Chief Investment Officer sixteen years ago, Wesleyan’s endowment was roughly $500 million. Today it has grown to approximately $1.7 billion, helping expand financial aid dramatically. Knowing that our work creates opportunities for students who otherwise might never have access to a place like Wesleyan has been the most rewarding part of this role.

I feel incredibly lucky to have spent my career doing work that aligned so closely with who I am. I got to compete intellectually, learn constantly, mentor students, and support an institution that has meant so much to my family for generations. That’s a pretty extraordinary way to spend a life."

- Anne Martin, Retiring Chief Investment Officer

Wesleyan University is a proud sponsor of 6th Annual Juneteenth Celebration and 4th Annual Liberation Day Parade hosted by Middletown Ujima Alliance.

77 members of the Class of 2026 were inducted into Wesleyan's chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. As the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society, it celebrates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. https://bit.ly/3SyL0Np

Wesleyan University is a founding partner of the Research & Education Station at Manresa Wilds (R.E.S.A.) in Norwalk, CT, alongside Manresa Island Corp., and four other institutions. The mission is to turn the 125-acre Manresa Wilds site into a "living lab" for coastal research, environmental stewardship, and place-based education.

So far at Wesleyan, there have been seven undergraduate and graduate courses that have engaged in interdisciplinary studies of Manresa. Courtney Fullilove, professor of history, has also led the Manresa Stories Oral History Project, in which students are documenting the human and industrial history of the island. https://bit.ly/4fvylo6