In tribute to beloved Pomona College professor Helena Wall, alumni are rallying behind a new experiential learning fund to carry forward her commitment to research and field-based learning.
At Pomona, the enduring mentorship of professors like Helena Wall reflects the College’s close faculty-student relationships — connections that continue to shape alumni long after graduation.
For 36 years, Pomona College professor Helena Wall challenged students to see history not as a static record of facts, but as a living, evolving argument — one shaped by interpretation, evidence and debate.
When Wall died in 2024, former students from across generations mourned the loss of a scholar they credit with shaping their intellectual lives — and in many cases, their careers.
Now, Evan Preston ’12 and Ella Taranto ’15 are rallying alumni to honor Wall’s legacy by launching a crowdfunding campaign to establish an experiential learning fund in her name. The fund will support Pomona history students pursuing research, study away programs and field studies — immersive learning opportunities that Taranto says Wall championed during her tenure.
“The Helena Wall Memorial Experiential Learning Fund will help preserve her work, inspiring and training generations of students of history at Pomona,” says Arash Khazeni, chair of the history department.
Wall joined Pomona’s faculty in 1984 and served as the Warren Finney Day Professor of History until her retirement in 2020. Colleagues and former students alike describe her as one of the College’s most respected educators, having received Pomona’s Wig Distinguished Professor Award, a student-voted honor and one of the College’s highest faculty distinctions.
“Helena Wall was one of the most brilliant among us,” says George Gorse, the Viola Horton Professor of Art. “To see her in faculty meetings or on committees was a lesson in profound insightfulness.”
In the classroom, Michael Latham ’90 says Wall believed history was essential to democracy — not because it offered easy answers, but because it demanded difficult questioning.
“In Helena’s class, students were pushed to question assumptions, analyze power and understand how the past informs the present,” Latham says. “She profoundly influenced my decision to pursue a doctorate in American history and shaped the kind of professor I became. I will forever be grateful for that.”
Latham, president of Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, says that Wall shaped both his academic path and professional calling.
“Professor Wall’s class was transformative,” he says. “History for me became a field of competing interpretations about the past that shaped our understanding of the present, and an ongoing debate that I could contribute to.”
In the same vein, Preston, an advocate on Capitol Hill, credits Wall with influencing how he approaches his work safeguarding voting systems.
“The way Helena challenged us to analyze institutions and people in power continues to shape how I approach public service today,” he says. “She believed in the power of education and this fund ensures her values — and her name — continue to shape Pomona students for generations to come.”
To help honor Wall’s legacy of learning through debate, discussion and understanding, make a gift to the Helena Wall Memorial Experiential Learning Fund.