Penn Alumni
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Author: Kristina Clark

Penn’s Association of Alumnae is proud to announce that 2012 marks their 100th Anniversary.

Founded in 1912, the Association of Alumnae works to strengthen the relationship between the University and its alumnae and to promote the interests and welfare of the University in areas of concern to women. They will kick off their 100th Anniversary celebration during Homecoming Weekend (October 27, 2012) with a tree dedication ceremony and reception at the Sweeten Alumni House. More information about these events will be forthcoming.

Sue Czarnecki is the Association of Alumnae Historian, and as part of their year-long celebration Sue will be bringing us some interesting stories about the Association and its alumnae. Enjoy . . .

The first officers of the Association of Alumnae were Pauline Wolcott Spencer, Sarah Pleis Miller, Jennie Ritner Beale, Zeta Berenice Cundey, Eleanor Fulton Karsner, and Elizabeth N. Woolman Pennock. Of the six officers two were biologists, Sarah Miller and Eleanor Krasner, and one a chemist, Elizabeth Woolman Pennock.

The Association of Alumnae held its first annual meeting on June 19, 1912, Commencement Day, at 3:00 PM in the Botanical Gardens. The women graduates of the Class of 1912, Provost Dr. Edgar F. Smith, the Vice Provost, Deans and their families attended. A Japanese comedy was presented and was followed by an informal reception.

On Wednesday, June 19, 2012 at 3:00 pm, Association of Alumnae officers and board members gathered at the Bio Pond — the same date, time and place as Penn alumnae gathered 100 years before them. A wonderful way to kick off this momentous year-long celebration!

Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, CAS’89

Today, George and I depart for our second “big trip.” Four years ago, we left in July 2008 for an eleven-month journey with very limited plans. I was so nervous. We leave this time with so much more experience in our relationship, our travel styles and our knowledge of each other’s dreams.

“Traveling is one way of lengthening life,” according to Benjamin Franklin. When I was at Penn, I always marveled at Benjamin Franklin’s life. He did so many different things from politics to inventing and was also a traveler. I would like to chase as many of my dreams and inventions as Benjamin Franklin did and I know while we are traveling I will have time to explore many new places and cultures.

Our adventure begins in Bali, Indonesia the largest archipelago on the planet. We plan to visit the Toggian Islands of Sulawesi and the Banda Islands. I cannot wait to go snorkeling in the clear blue waters and relax on the gorgeous beaches. We promise to send photos and videos if there is Internet and electricity! Sign up for our newsletter and get an email from us twice a month with our latest news! You can always check our website for our latest posts.

As Andrew Evans says in Ben Franklin, Traveler: Benjamin Franklin’s example [to us all]: a patriot is someone who travels and broadens their minds through travel.

I wish you a Happy Independence Day and I hope to follow his example and use these travels as a tool for learning, to enhance my teaching and to share it all with you.

by Kiera Reilly, C’93 @KieraReilly

This week I traveled to Seattle and Portland to visit our Penn Alumni Clubs in each city. While there, I was able to visit and taste some of the best doughnuts in the country – as so deemed by Travel + Leisure. It turns out, T+L thinks many of the country’s best donuts (doughnuts) are on the West Coast. I’ll do my best to report back in the coming months as I’m able to sample them!

On Monday, while in town to meet with the Penn Club of Seattle board, I first took a morning walk to Top Pot Doughnuts and sampled the old fashioned. Top Pot has several locations around Seattle, but I wanted to visit the original storefront. While I enjoyed the doughnut, there was a little too much glaze for my taste. Click here to see what T+L liked.

For lunch, after an obligatory stop at Starbucks, I met with Kristine Tan Wright ’94, Belinda Bentzen Buscher ’92 and David Blum. We discussed the club’s upcoming incoming student send-off , plans for bringing a faculty member to the club in the coming year, and of course, the dreary weather (it is Seattle!).

Before driving to Portland, I made a super quick stop at another Seattle “best of” doughnut location – Mighty-O Donuts. North of downtown, also in a residential neighborhood, Mighty-Os are organic and vegan, but oh they are good. Crisp and crunchy on the outside, and a delicious not too sweet cake on the inside, I have to say, these are some of the best doughnuts I’ve ever had. Here is why T+L liked Mighty-O.

In Portland on Tuesday morning, it was time again for stretching my legs…and stopping by Voodoo Doughnuts, where they say, “the magic is in the hole.” I had visited Voodoo before and loved their maple bacon doughnut (2 whole pieces of bacon on each one). This time I tried a Portland Cream and chocolate. Mmmmmmmm…. Click here to see what T+L had to say.

At lunch, the Penn Club of Portland welcomed Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Jonathan Moreno for a presentation and interactive discussion with alumni, parents and local friends. Everyone enjoyed his talk and is looking forward to the club’s annual Summer Lawn Party where new students and their families are welcomed to the Penn family.

I always enjoy visiting our alumni clubs in the Pacific Northwest, but when I’m able to have a few free minutes to sample some local goodies, it makes the trip extra special! I encourage alumni in Portland and Seattle to grab some doughnuts and then call or email the local alumni clubs and stay engaged with Penn! Do you have a favorite doughnut spot? I hope to visit more best donuts soon – and report back!

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

I’m going to take a different angle for Locust Walk Talk this week and share with you what we Alumni Relations professionals do to hone our craft. Annually, the Alumni Relations groups of the 8 Ivy League Universities as well as MIT and Stanford gather for the Ivy Plus Alumni Relations Conference, or Ivy+ for short. This year, the conference was hosted by Dartmouth College.

Nestled in the town of Hanover, NH, Dartmouth College sits as an idyllic institution of higher education. So perfect is the image, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 said “this is what a college is supposed to look like.” It is quite charming and, if Penn didn’t exist, I would agree with Eisenhower (for the record, I think that Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are all what college is supposed to look like.)

The Dartmouth Alumni Relations staff dazzled us with their school pride and shared with us their traditions like the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips, the Salty Dog Rag, the Winter Carnival, and Homecoming. From D-Term to Animal House, from Sophomore Summer to Occom Pond, we were taken on a crash course of all that is Dartmouth. By the end, several of us were seeing green – Dartmouth Green.

Each of us found our specific conference track – focused on our area of expertise, including Affinity Groups and Shared Interest Groups; Alumni Education and Travel; Classes and Reunions; Clubs and Regional Associations; Marketing, Communications and Technology; Student and Young Alumni Programs; and Volunteer Management and Alumni Boards. In these sessions, we discussed best practices and shared success stories that we can hopefully adapt at our home University. The intent is that when we return to our campus, we follow up and continue the conversations started at Ivy+.

Vijay addressing the Ivy+ crowd

Outside of our tracks of expertise, we had daily plenary sessions. Two of these featured Christopher Trimble, adjunct professor of Business Administration and Vijay Govindarajan, the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College – the authors of The Other Side of Innovation. During Ivy+, their discussions were based on our pre-conference reading (a.k.a. homework), How Stella Saved The Farm: A Wild and Woolly Tale About Making Innovation Happen, a fable based on their business best-seller. The discussions revolved around how to change the way we think about the planning for the future (where will the firm be in 20 years and what products or services will being the firm there) and addressing the need of mutual respect for the business’s production engine and its innovation team (both of which will be in conflict with each other).

The other plenary discussion was from fellow Pennsylvanian, Peter Post, C’72, Director, The Emily Post Institute who discussed the etiquette of tough situations. Peter annually comes to Dartmouth during their sophomore summer for a lunch which pairs the current sophomore class (the Class of 2015) with the matching 50th reunion class (the Class of 1965). The lunch is a wonderful opportunity for the two classes to make connections and discover each others class, while learning (or refreshing) their table etiquette. For us, though, Peter focused on what the contemporary meaning of etiquette is while being true to his great-grandmother’s mission: etiquette is the relationship between two people that is respectful, considerate, and based in honest. In remembering these three tenets, Peter assured us that we would have proper etiquette in the business world. He finished his talk with some role play to manage some of the most challenging interactions in today’s social world.

We talked shop, but we had fun too. On Wednesday, we had the options of a tour of the Hood Museum of Art for the show – Nature Transformed: Edward Burynsky’s Vermont Quarry Photographs in Context, a walking tour of campus led by Dartmouth sophomores or underground steam tunnel tour. On Thursday, we had a Dr. Seuss-themed Oh, the Places You’ll Go! excursion (Theodor Seuss Geisel is a Dartmouth Class of 1925 alumnus), which mirrored the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips, to the Connecticut River for either canoeing or kayaking, to King Arthur Flour Store and Bakery, to Simon Pearce – glassblowing and pottery studio, to a guided hike along the Connecticut, to the Hood Museum for the presentation “Ancient Art, New Media: Bringing the Past to Life,” or to the Harpoon Brewery. I opted for Harpoon.

At the end of the three days, the conference ended with a handful of TEDx-styled talks from our peers, including our own Elise Betz. They were charming, informative, evocative and emotional. The motivational chats moved the audience and summarized the amazing experience of getting to spend 3 days with our Ivy+ peers, sharing our skills, brainstorming ideas and meeting such impressive people who love their alma mater! Ending on a high note, we announced that Penn would be hosting Ivy+ in 2013. It’s a lot of work, but we’re looking forward to it.

Author: Kayla Crawley, C’07

Stepping foot on campus for the first time as an administrator was at the very least, surreal. My mind wasn’t quite sure what to make of the experience – it was like some sort of unfamiliar nostalgia. Exactly, it made no sense. Having graduated from Penn in 2007, I don’t feel too far removed from the student experience. Everything I see and smell on campus conjures a memory from my 18-21 year-old pre-adulthood. Looking out of my other lens, these familiar spaces also summon feelings of new found excitement and energy for the unknown.

Having been in my position as Alumni Relations Coordinator for University Life for a little less than 6 months, I can say that not much and everything, has changed at Penn. The University’s infrastructure may be changing – new buildings, new administrators, new programs – but its essence, something you can’t necessarily put to words, is the same. To go from being a blurry-eyed junior running down Locust Walk dodging salmon and ketchup from rambunctious seniors, to volunteering as a staff member passing out canes and hats to the 2012 junior class, was a salient moment. I realized that in 2006 as a junior, when I ran up to get my hat and cane from whoever was working the booth, I had no idea where I would be in 6 years’ time.

I’m still not sure I have the answer that question today, but it feels god to be back at Penn figuring it all out.

Author: Lisa Vaccarelli, C’02, GED ‘10

This time last year, I blogged about the eerie calm and quiet that descends on campus after Alumni Weekend and Commencement. Somehow, it seems like that calm, quiet period gets shorter and shorter each year. Here it is, just barely the month of June, and already we are well into our planning for Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts & Culture. Though Homecoming is still over four months away, programs are already being created; spaces are being secured; and marketing materials are being designed. As much work as this is, it is also one of my favorite parts of my job. Homecoming Weekend is an opportunity to share Penn’s creative side with the world. And since I’m no good at keeping secrets, here’s a sneak peak at what you just might get to experience if you come back to campus October 26-28, 2012.

What is contemporary? Learn the answer from Ingrid Schaffner, Senior Curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art.

Explore new developments in contemporary jazz with music professor Dr. Guy Ramsey.

Join a discussion about California and French Impressionism and view pieces on loan from the Irvine Museum at the Arthur Ross Gallery.

Discover what the ancient Mayans REALLY thought would happen in the year 2012 at the Penn Museum exhibit Maya 2012: Lords of Time.

Stay tuned for more exciting programs like these by visiting! Check back in August for full details on the Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts & Culture website.