2025 in pictures

By ClarkNow Staff

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The Northern lights at Clark campus over Jonas Hall.

We look back on the past year through the lens of University Photographer Steven King and student interns Ismael De La Cruz ’27, Collin Hamilton ’27, and Natalie Hoang ’25, MBA ’26.

The events and traditions that make up our year

Students perform a dance during the International Gala even.

Held each spring, Gala is a student-run showcase of traditional and contemporary dance, music, and fashion from the many cultures represented within the Clark community.

A class of 2025 group photo taken during orientation
The class of 2029 greets the day at orientation.
A student raises their hand in celebration during Commencement.
121st Commencement
A Clark student athlete competes in a soccer game during Friends and Family Weekend
Go Cougars!
Students roller sake at night during move-in weekend

A year of discovery

Students in the lab of Biology Professor Javier Tabima Restrepo ventured into local wild spaces and waterways to collect frogs for an extended study. 

Their research aims to understand the diversity, genomics, evolution, and ecology of microfungal species associated with multiple hosts and ecosystems.

A student stands in front of a projection onto fabric, part of a Visual and Performing Arts capstone project
Visual and Performing Arts Department capstone projects
Student, Lauren Parry hold up a mycology specimen up to light in the laboratory
Doctoral student Lauren Parry studies how humans may be able to fend off microscopic fungi.
Classical musicians on stage performing during Friends and Family Weekend
Student performance at Friends and Family Weekend
The Mathis lab examines plant specimens in Grafton
Kaitlyn Mathis’ research — in which she always involves students, who often receive “first author” status on peer-reviewed journal articles — seeks to unpack how ants can impact the food we grow and the places we call home.
Students explore a new sensory room at the Southbridge Ribbon Cutting event
Clark’s Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise and Southbridge Public Schools collaborated on an initiative to create a sensory immersion room where distressed students can decompress, calm themselves, and learn how to manage their behavior.
Students in Toby Sissons class collaborate on a string art installation.
With 2,000 feet of string and 400 nails, students in studio art Professor Toby Sisson’s course create a collaborative wall installation spanning 45 feet at the Traina Center for the Arts.
A student works in Julio D'Arcy's lab
Red bricks that hold a charge, tiles that kill superbugs, fabrics that quietly track your health — in Julio D’Arcy’s lab, students help invent new “smart” materials.
Students work at a console during a rehearsal for the Interactive Theater performance.
The Interactive Theater course, a collaboration that brings together students and faculty from our game design and performing arts programs, culminates in the production and performance of a non-linear, participatory, and interactive theatre work.
Close up of a fruit fly against a yellow background
Clark geneticist Justin Thackeray and his students are working to discover if our genetic cousins help us understand mutations that contribute to cancer, diabetes, and other diseases.

A singular honor: members of the Nipmuc community join geography professor John Rogan to plant a Nipmuc garden at the Hadwen Arboretum — the only place they cultivate beyond their ancestral land in Grafton. 

Under their guidance, students planted carefully selected varieties near the community garden.

Humans of Clark

A visual and performing arts student tunes a guitar in the photo studio room during a senior capstone project event
A student works in Julio D'Arcy's lab
Late Night Breakfast, fall 2025; photo by Natalie Hoang ’25, MBA ’26
A student walks the runway during a thrift store fashion show

On and around campus

A view of campus during Move-in Day, black-eyed Susans in the foreground with international flags in the background
Jonas Clark Hall
Bright red leaves on the ground in front of a building on the Clark campus
A Comparative Environmental Politics class meets outside near Red Square on the Clark campus
Fall foliage along the Main Street gate of Clark University
A vocal performance by a group called the Art of the Quartet
A student sits in a stage set during a dress rehearsal for the Interactive Theater performance.
Hiphop dance performance
A light painting showing a person wearing a VR headset
Clark student Ava Soch holds a globe for the cover shot of the magazine.
paint splattered on Freud statue
statue of Freud on college campus
Students in front of Jonas Hall carrying sleds during the first snow of the season.
A view of campus in the snow

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