Director’s Letter

August 2026

I am honored to be returning the Kilachand community for my fourth Fall as its Director. In the past three years, our team has continued to build upon the foundation past Directors carefully crafted to create an Honors College community that welcomes bright, intellectually curious students into our living-learning space and in turn provides an incubator for extraordinary growth within and outside the classroom.

The skills and knowledge developed through rigorous interdisciplinary coursework, co-curricular events, and Keystone Senior projects uniquely position Kilachand students to address pressing societal issues and to contribute to local and global change.  The last Saturday in April has continued to be one of my favorite days of the year, given this is when Kilachand Honors College Seniors present their Keystone projects. Projects reflect substantial bodies of work in which students have deeply entrenched themselves for over a year, and at the Symposium they showcase what this unique learning community has to offer. Projects reflect the wide range of disciplinary interests of Kilachand students, their commitment to bridging and integrating seemingly disparate fields to better address challenges facing our world, and their willingness to tackle projects outside of their fields. Each year I have the privilege of witnessing Kilachand’s community of care in action during the Keystone Symposium as well. Keystone mentors sit in the audience, proudly listening to their students’ presentations, and peers smile encouragingly as friends step up to the podium. As our lives are more frequently marked by disconnection, these connections are vital.

As we prepare for a new entering class of first-year students, I look forward to welcoming them into our community, to meeting each of them individually at Donuts with the Director meetings, and to exploring Boston with them and our fabulous team of KHC faculty and staff at our Scavenger Hunt in Boston during orientation. I am eager for the energy and ideas they will bring, and how they will contribute to the collective shaping of our future.

Warmly,

Melissa K. Holt
Director, Kilachand Honors College
Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professor
Professor of Counseling Psychology, Wheelock College of Education and Human Development