I live in Sussex, England, though most of my work takes me to poorer parts of the world in Africa, Asia or Latin America. The College of Arts and Science, from which I graduated almost 40 years ago, often seems a long way away. But when I learned last year of the death of Chancellor Alexander Heard, I began to reflect on the connections between my years at Vanderbilt and my work in international development today.

Mouzon Siddiqi has participated and thrived in international relations from Alabama to Afghanistan. Most of that time and effort have been on the Vanderbilt campus, where she serves as program coordinator for the Graduate Program in Economic Development (GPED).

In the College of Arts and Science, if you’re going to study Earth and environmental sciences (EES), you get out of the classroom. So in the Cascade Range of Washington State, Professor Calvin Miller and his students examine Mount St. Helens. Beside a river in Bangladesh, Associate Professors Jonathan Gilligan and Steven Goodbred Jr. help students try to find answers to that country’s fresh water needs. And in frozen Antarctica, Professor Molly Miller tracks environmental changes in the face of global warming.

In fall 1975, four undergraduates with love for performing and Broadway musicals launched a new campus organization called the Original Cast, a Broadway revue troupe. That first year, they had to find their own funding, run auditions, find places to rehearse and perform, and put on a show. Now 35 years later, the group started [...]