Renfrow Hall News Today

Feven Getachew `24 did not prepare for the Iowa cold. When she arrived at the Des Moines airport from Ethiopia in January 2021, she said, “I thought, ‘Okay, I will just wear a hoodie and something underneath and that will be good enough.’” Luckily, she said John Edwards, director of international admission, brought her plenty...

Photos Capture the Spirit and Soul

Renfrow Hall, set to open its doors on the esteemed campus of Grinnell College in Iowa, stands as a profound tribute to the enduring legacy of Edith Renfrow Smith, a

Photos Capture the Spirit and Soul

On Tuesday, March 12, Grinnell College announced that Monica Sanders will be the inaugural recipient of the Social Innovator in Residence Program. Sanders, the founder of the Undivide Project, will receive $50,000 in funding for a five to seven week residency in the Edith Renfrow Smith `37 Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ), the construction of which...

Shortly after entering the Dining Hall on the second day of New Student Orientation, Bella Villarreal `26 realized she was having difficulty breathing.  “I went outside, and I thought that it would be fine and it was getting better,” Villarreal said. “Someone sat behind me, and they had shrimp and it got much worse.”  She...

“No One is Better than You: Edith Renfrow Smith and the Power of a Mother’s Words,” a children’s book honoring the legacy of the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College, has officially been released. The launch event, hosted at the Pioneer Bookshop on Saturday, Jan. 27, was attended by Monique McLay Shore `90,...

Farm House has lost its farm, due to changes in the original construction plans of the Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ) and Edith Renfrow Smith `37 Hall in downtown Grinnell that saw the installation of infrastructure to support construction on Farm House’s original plot. This decision, however, came as a surprise to the residents at Farm...

For many students, classes couldn’t start soon enough this fall. On Aug. 24, in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave that brought indices of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, classrooms became an air-conditioned escape from unbearably hot dorm rooms. The intense heat, which returned again over Labor Day, left some students questioning the College’s preparedness, as...

In August of 2023, Grinnell College welcomed two new staff members, JC Lopez, vice president of student affairs, and Bernadine Douglas, vice president for development and alumni relations. Marc Reed assumed the role of vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in a permanent capacity.  JC Lopez Coming from DePauw University, where he worked...