'Lifelong Community': Alumni Reconnect During Dickinson College Alumni Weekend 2019
Alumni Weekend
Campus events offer something for every Dickinsonian
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson; Photos by Carl Socolow '77
There were many ways to make Alumni Weekend yours. Whether you mingled from morning to night or focused on a handful of individualized gatherings, there were many opportunities to connect, reminisce and learn something new June 7-9.
Several events brought all members of the college community together, including the president’s reception, breakfast with the senior staff, the all-campus barbecue and the Saturday night dance party. Tours, open houses and receptions reconnected alumni with familiar places and introduced them to new ones, like the Platinum LEED-certified High Street residence hall. Also perennially popular: parties and receptions hosted by clubs, organizations and classes, including a group sing for alumni of Dickinson’s Campus Choir, an Asbell Center breakfast, an alumni art exhibition and an international business & management wine tasting.
As in the past, sporty Dickinsonians biked to the College Farm, teed off to benefit the McAndrews Fund for Athletics and took off for the annual Fun Run. History buffs trekked the Gettysburg battlefield with Matthew Pinsker, Brian C. Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History, and learned about Dickinson history with College Archivist Jim Gerencser ’93, while sustainably minded alumni waded in local streams to collect water samples with ALLARM.
Dickinson’s Alumni College classes offered many opportunities to keep the learning going with:
- college admissions information sessions, consultations and mock interviews for Dickinsonians with high-schoolers in their families
- a book signing with Stephen Fried, New York Times bestselling author of Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father
- panel discussions on law education and the impact of media on global peace and conflict
- an alumnus presentation on international aid work
- a conversation with Dickinson’s first spoken-word poetry collective and its current performance poetry group
- and exhibitions and tours in the Trout and Goodyear galleries.
And, during a Friday evening ceremony, Dickinson paid homage to the exceptional alumni and parent volunteers Sherwood “Woody” Goldberg ’63, George Gill ’54, Llamilet Gutierrez ’09, Louise Hauer Greenberg ’54, Orli Segal ’15, Carol Dougherty P’17 and Hung Nguyen P’19 and Eric Grorud ’94.
“Dickinson is a lifelong community,” said President Margee Ensign, during a Saturday morning breakfast. That sense of continuity and connection resonated with Michelle Kaster ’14, who returned to campus for her first Alumni Weekend.
“Being able to reconnect with professors and with people in my class and find out their stories since graduation—as well as reconnect with the college and see the new changes on campus and in town—means a lot,” said Kaster. “I know that I have a connection with my school and support, all throughout my career.”
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published June 10, 2019