A moment for the caps! 🎓 📸 Joel Haskell (fb)

“For a generation of Wellesley students, Professor Helen Lin was synonymous with Chinese,” begins the citation of Lin’s Pinanski Teaching Prize, awarded posthumously in 1986. “Tireless, efficient, demanding, yet caring, Helen created the Chinese department at Wellesley, bringing it national and international acclaim.” In her obituary, the Boston Globe stated that under Lin’s leadership, the department “was considered one of the nation’s foremost undergraduate programs in the field. Teaching methods developed there are used extensively throughout the country.” Lin arrived at Wellesley from Beijing as a lecturer in 1966, tasked with launching a Chinese language program. Having taught in Taiwan and at Yale University’s Far Eastern Languages Institute, she personally created the teaching materials for Wellesley’s program. In 1970 the Chinese department was founded with Lin, by then a professor, as its chair. In addition to writing several essential textbooks, she made lasting contributions to language centers in the U.S. and abroad, including the Middlebury College Summer Chinese School. “Dedication is the word most often used by many who learned from her,” the Pinanski citation concludes. “Dedication to teaching, to students, to Wellesley, to life. Helen never held office hours; her door was always open.” 📸 Bradford Herzog #AAPIHeritageMonth (fb)