At �ֲ���ý Reunion in June, the Alumni Association gathered to present the annual Alumni Council Awards, recognizing the exceptional career and service achievements of five alumni.

“It is truly inspiring to witness the transformative power of our alumni as they engage in informed civic action and lead in diverse fields,” said Leah Elsmore ’12, president of the Alumni Association for the 2025-26 academic year. “This year’s recipients reflect the ardor and devotion — Amore ac Studio — that define the �ֲ���ý experience, serving as a powerful reminder of the potential within our entire alumni network.”

Peter R. Basiliere ’76 received the Alumni Community Service Award in recognition of his leadership and civic service in Milford, N.H., where he was elected town moderator and school district moderator. After retiring from a career as a leader in additive manufacturing, Basiliere, an active Rotarian, began serving as a volunteer with the American Red Cross. Since then he has joined disaster relief teams in California, Vermont, the Carolinas, and, most recently, Guam, where he oversaw the Red Cross’ food operations after a super typhoon hit the island. Basiliere’s commitment to service and strengthening communities around the country reflects �ֲ���ý’ ideals of purposeful work and responsible stewardship of the wider world.

Scientist Noah E. Petro ’01 earned the Alumni Professional Recognition Award in recognition of his career and leadership at NASA, where he has worked since 2007. Since 2017, he has been the lab chief of NASA’s Planetary Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry lab, which conducts research on Mercury, Venus, Earth, and their satellites. He is the project scientist for Artemis III, the 2027 mission that will bring astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since 1972. Petro’s work at NASA, both highly scientific and serving the general public, exemplifies �ֲ���ý’ mission of combining intellectual rigor with public good.

Physician Christopher B. Lanoue ’99, P’26 earned the Bruce Stangle ’70, P’96, GP’26 Award for Distinguished Service to the �ֲ���ý Community in recognition of his commitment to supporting �ֲ���ý students and alumni through their medical school journeys. An emergency medicine specialist with MaineHealth, Lanoue has worked closely with the Center for Purposeful Work, mentoring �ֲ���ýies pursuing medical careers, and done so with “generosity, warmth, and openness.” His leadership and service, emblematic of �ֲ���ý’ values, has touched countless people as they themselves prepare for a career of serving others through medicine.

Rachel Ebersole ’17 was presented with the Distinguished Young Alumni Award in recognition of her career as a museum educator and her leadership within the alumni community. Ebersole is the manager of teen programs at The New York Historical museum and library, where she also oversees a digital learning lab and makerspace. Ebersole is a dedicated leader within the New York �ֲ���ý Network, fostering alumni community and hosting events. Her volunteer service to the college is an inspiring example of the transformative power of the young alumni network.

Erica Seifert Plunkett ’86 earned the Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award, which recognizes alumni who have given exceptional service to the college. Plunkett served as class co-president while at �ֲ���ý and, since graduating, as an Alumni Council member, a dedicated class agent, and a committee leader. Plunkett has also led an accomplished career in research; she spent more than 25 years at the Wellesley Centers for Women supporting research projects studying mental health literacy and mental health in adolescents. She is now a project manager at Brown University’s Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, working on projects related to adolescent depression prevention.

The Office of College Advancement also presented Kathryn (Kali) M. Brown ’21, Craig E. Comins ’81, and Meg W. Curran ’11 with �ֲ���ý’ Best Awards, which recognize dedicated volunteers who have expressed a passion and commitment for advancing the mission of the college.

“Our alumni continue to do incredible work in their communities and professions, and honoring this year’s award recipients is a privilege,” said Assistant Vice President for Alumni Engagement Sarah Cameron. “Every year, these awards remind us of the strength and reach of the �ֲ���ý network, and we look forward to seeing who our community nominates next.”

Want to nominate someone for a 2027 award? Nominating forms are available now. 

Besides ivy itself, the motif most often seen on �ֲ���ý ivy stones over the years is Hathorn Hall, depicted in some fashion on six stones since the tradition began with the Class of 1879. 

But as the 50th Reunion Class of 1974 set out last year to create their own, long-postponed ivy stone, there was no way, no how that �ֲ���ý’ first building would find its way into the design.

Charles Grosvenor ’74, who designed the stone along with the late Nicki Taylor ’74, shared that insider tidbit as he introduced the class stone during a bittersweet ceremony on Saturday morning of Reunion. He got a knowing laugh from his classmates when he described what project member Karen Harris ’74 had requested: “Please, no Hathorn!”

Harris is a longtime �ֲ���ý volunteer, trustee emerita, and member of 1974’s Reunion Social and Gift committees, so her “no Hathorn” guidance was less a rejection of tradition than a call for originality. The Class of 1974, which had been launched from �ֲ���ý into a sea of American malaise in the mid-1970s — Watergate, post-Vietnam War, unfinished work for social, gender, and racial progress — would, 50 years later, strive for something their own. 

“Rather than finding it restricting,” said Grosvenor, well-known as the director of multiple and beloved The Land Before Time animated movies, “we felt it actually opened up the idea for other concepts and images to put into the stone.”

For many years, the tradition of a class designing and installing a square, granite stone on a campus building was part of a May ceremony that included speeches, odes, songs, and the planting of a sprig of ivy directly below the new stone. But by the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, Ivy Day had become something different, an increasingly raucous tradition centered on a withering roast of the senior class by juniors. 

Things got out of hand, apparently, and the event was canceled for a time in the early 1970s. During the fallow time, ivy stones for two years,1974 and 1975, were not installed. (Which is why, when Grosvenor was invited to join the ivy-stone project by classmate Jerry Quinlan ’74, he replied, “Sure, you bet, count me in. But what’s an ivy stone?”) The Class of 1975 created and installed theirs in 2006. And on June 8, 2024, at their 50th Reunion, it was, finally, the Class of 1974’s turn.

After graduating with a studio art major, Grosvenor headed to Hollywood to work in the animation industry. He knew he wanted to avoid being slotted into the painstaking work of frame-by-frame, hand-drawn animation.

He knew how to use his skill at illustration to create and tell a story. “I was drawn to storyboarding,” he said after the ceremony, describing the work of visualizing a script by creating drawings or panels that map out a film’s scenes and sequences.

Which is exactly what he and Taylor, a fellow �ֲ���ý art major, did for the Class of 1974 stone, which cleverly draws on an iconic logo to tell a �ֲ���ý story on a 8-inch square granite canvas. “I thought, we’ve got the Bobcat and we’ve got this name, Academia �ֲ���ýina, which is classy because, well, it’s Latin. And then what can we do with that? Well, the Bobcat has a very distinguished cousin, Leo the Lion” of MGM fame.

From that, Grosvenor and Taylor created a final sketch that played off the iconic MGM logo, blending a roaring Bobcat in place of Leo the Lion, and the college’s Latinized name in place of Ars Gratia Artis, “Art for Art’s Sake.” The MGM parody was one of 25 ideas the pair created, others involving the state of Maine, the letter B with ivy on it, and various Bobcat images.

At the dedication, Grosvenor was generous and thoughtful in describing the work of Taylor, who died in November 2023 after a period of declining health. Taylor, who worked in the veterinary field in western Maine, always had an artistic eye, whether using a paintbrush, camera, or quilting needle. 

With that artistic eye, and gardening talent as well, Taylor contributed to the design of the ivy tendrils that surround the illustration. She also chose the red granite while she was in intensive care at Maine Medical Center, a few days before she died.

“Nicki knew she would not be able to make it to our 50th Reunion but she loved contributing to the project,” said Harris, her �ֲ���ý roommate and lifelong friend. Speaking to his classmates at the ceremony, Grosvenor summed it up. “Nicki did great work,” he said.

With that, Grosvenor turned from the lectern set up a few feet from the 1974 stone, hidden until this point by a �ֲ���ý banner hanging from the Dana Hall brickwork. He walked over and removed the banner, revealing, 50 years after graduation, the 1974 ivy stone. 

“Voila! The Class of 1974 is no longer ivy stone short!”

Six �ֲ���ý alumni were recognized for their contributions to �ֲ���ý and the wider world — in fields and endeavors including emergency medicine, applied psychology, and financial services — during the Annual Gathering of the �ֲ���ý College Alumni Association on June 8 during Reunion.

“We are incredibly proud to honor these outstanding alumni for their distinct accomplishments and important work for �ֲ���ý and beyond,” said Kevin Moore ’93, president of the �ֲ���ý Alumni Association. “Their commitment to service, excellence, and social responsibility embodies the spirit of �ֲ���ý, and we are grateful for their continued dedication to the �ֲ���ý community.”

During the gathering, President Garry W. Jenkins offered the traditional Presidential Address, his first as president, to the Reunion alumni, who gathered in Merrill Gymnasium following the 110th Alumni Parade.

“Thank you for being here and listening,” he said in his conclusion. “Thanks for your warm welcome into the �ֲ���ý community. And thanks for your engagement, your generosity, and your loyal support of �ֲ���ý.”

Alumni Community Service Award: Michael Schlechter ’99

Schlechter received the Alumni Community Service Award for his steadfast and nearly lifelong volunteer commitment to the field of emergency medical services, currently as volunteer chief of the Weston (Conn.) Volunteer EMS; his countless hours of dedicated service has safeguarded the well-being of others, saved lives, enhanced public safety, and inspired his home community of Weston.

Alumni Professional Recognition Award: Robin Hodgskin ’76

Hodgskin received the Alumni Professional Recognition Award for her remarkable success as a senior vice president in the financial-services industry, including an influential role in guiding ultra-high-net-worth families towards impactful philanthropy, and her unwavering dedication to community service and social responsibility through extensive involvement in organizations like Safe Passage and the Maine Women’s Fund.

Alumni Professional Recognition Award: David Wilcox ’74

David Wilcox ’74 received the Alumni Professional Recognition Award for his distinguished 45-year career in medicine, his academic contributions at institutions like Brown University Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, his leadership in leading medical organizations, and his unwavering commitment to advancing healthcare, patient-centered care, and mentoring future generations, reflecting the service and community engagement ideals of �ֲ���ý.

Bruce Stangle ’70 Award for Distinguished Service: Ira Waldman ’73

Waldman ’73 received the Bruce Stangle ’70 Award for Distinguished Service for his extraordinary dedication and engagement as a �ֲ���ý alumnus, providing valuable expertise to many �ֲ���ý programs and initiative, including impactful advocacy for �ֲ���ý Athletics and skillful efforts as a Reunion volunteer, Alumni Council member, �ֲ���ý Admission representative, and leader of the John Jenkins Scholarship Committee.

Distinguished Young Alumni Award: Alexandria Onuoha ’20

Alexandria Onuoha ’20 received the Distinguished Young Alumni Award for her exceptional dedication to �ֲ���ý and remarkable early-career achievements as a doctoral candidate in applied developmental psychology, including publishing peer-reviewed articles, presenting on critical societal issues, and advocating for social change through psychology, all while actively engaging with broader audiences to amplify her voice and drive informed civic action.

Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award: Jennifer Bouchard ’99.

Bouchard received the Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award for her exceptional dedication and impactful roles as a �ֲ���ý volunteer, demonstrated through her leadership on the Alumni Council and �ֲ���ý Fund Executive Committee; her active work to support �ֲ���ý Admission recruiting, career advising, and event coordination; and her tireless service as a liaison between alumni, students, and the college community.

As an engineering major, Zain Erakky ’26 of New York City does not plan to pursue a career in animation or film. 

But as someone who grew up enchanted by the ingenious children on the animated series Rugrats, Erakky made sure to get a front-row seat after hearing that Norton Virgien ’74, well known for his many director and producer credits for the award-winning franchise, was giving a talk on campus as part of the Distinguished Alumni in Residence program.

“Norton was an inspiration for me growing up, with all those cool inventions the Rugrats made,” Erakky said, such as a super binky, coconut phone, and a hovercraft. Erakky remembers the wild adventure when Tommy Pickles climbed a plunger handle to explore a bathroom toilet, with hilarious results. “I always wanted to do that stuff in real life.”

The biggest takeaway for Erakky after hearing Virgien? How the veteran, Emmy Award–winning Hollywood producer and director went through dry spells in his career and still came out on top.

“That he faced rejection is inspiring. It was super powerful to see someone who helped to create something from my childhood, and to hear how he had sometimes failed — but he was fine with that,” Erakky said.

Virgien, who returns with �ֲ���ý classmates for his 50th �ֲ���ý Reunion this weekend, was on campus on March 27 as a guest of the College Key’s Distinguished Alumni program. During his visit, he met and talked with students about his 49-year (and counting) run in Hollywood. 

In an interview, Virgien spoke frankly about how creatives like painters, dancers, writers, or poets will face periods of financial insecurity if they decide to be independent artists. “Pretty much my career has alternated between projects that I’ve loved and time looking for the next project that I’m going to love,” he said. “There are often breaks, and that makes it an adventure financially, however well you did while you were busy.”

After graduating from �ֲ���ý, Virgien headed to Hollywood, where he started as a draftsman back when animation was done by hand, and creating the movement of a single character required up to 24 slightly different drawings for just one second of animation. 

In Hollywood, he quickly picked up freelance work as a draftback, an illustrator who copies the initial image drawn by the lead artist. But largely he learned by listening and heeding advice — even if that meant giving up what he loved to do: bringing drawn characters to life by creating original illustrations. 

Virgien’s mentor in those early days was Fred Hellmich, an animator for Disney (The Aristocats, The Jungle Book) in the mid-1900s who later opened his own studio with Virgien as a partner. (Fun fact: They did the Disney-inspired animated sequence in the movie 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin as Snow White).

Hellmich saw that his mentee had a keen sense for storytelling in his work, a talent that Virgien’s �ֲ���ý mentor, the late Dana Professor of Art Don Lent, had seen as well. At the time, Virgien was helping Hellmich with a Disney project, and Hellmich paid him the compliment of telling him  “all he had to do was pretty up my drawings because I had already solved the storytelling problems.”

Virgien wasn’t the only �ֲ���ý art major from the Class of 1974 who trekked to Hollywood to work in animation. By the late 1970s, Charles Grosvenor, who had been encouraged by Virgien to trade East for West, was forging his own career as an animator.

As the 1990s arrived, Grosvenor was hitting his stride with an equally popular series, but far different from his classmate’s, the heartfelt and vibrantly drawn The Land Before Time, for which Grosvenor was a producer and director of the television series and nine of the franchise’s movies.

“My friend Charlie went into animation alongside me, and he maintained his really fabulous, illustrative style of drawing and found a whole different kind of career than I did.”

Virgien credits the �ֲ���ý art program and his former professor Don Lent, who died in 2020, for a distinctive level of flexibility. “Many art teachers have an approach that they like to instill in people; �ֲ���ý encouraged me and Charlie, but allowed us to flourish in our own directions.

“If you look at people who want to work for Disney animation, their portfolios are all quite similar because there are things that one has to think about when learning to animate, [such as] the way the human structure changes when it’s in movement. And that goes back to the 1940s, that the animators then were learning the same tricks of the trade, drawing wise, as what they do now.”

Growing up, Virgien and other young creatives were also inspired by the animation of 1968’s Yellow Submarine. The film was “highly stylized and very trippy,” Virgien said. “It opened doors for people who wanted to do work in animation that wasn’t as akin to the traditional Disney product.”

The success of Yellow Submarine also meant that, for the first time, “adults started watching animated films. Before then, they were considered either for children or for families.” For a new generation of animators, the door was thrown open to be “more experimental, less predictable, and more designy — if that’s a word.”

The iconic trippiness of Yellow Submarine, with its Blue Meanies, Apple Bonkers, and Kinky Boot Beasts, gave young new animators license “to be funnier, or more exaggerated, which probably did something to lead to The Simpsons,” said Virgien. 

And it influenced Rugrats, too, “whose cinematography mimicked the way babies might see the world with low angles and strange distortions, and all kinds of shows that no longer tried to look like life. They tried to look like quirky drawings come to life.”

Today’s animation is often done by computer; Disney’s last hand-drawn animated film was Winnie the Pooh, in 2011. “We used to be able to identify certain animators’ work just by the style of it. Now it gets homogenized by the computer process a bit,” Virgien said. “But as a director you have more control when you don’t have to ask someone to redraw a hundred drawings. You can do more tweaking and less reinventing.”

Along with technological advances, the times and places that children and babies can watch animation have expanded. Long gone are the days when cartoon watching meant Saturday morning in front of a television set. Now it’s a tablet or cell phone in a car seat, stroller, or grocery store cart. And the youngest viewers aren’t yet 1 year old.

“It’s a funny terminology to say, ‘zero-year-olds,’” said Virgien. “But coming up with material for the zero-year-old is challenging. For the very youngest, you want to simplify things so that they’re seeing colors and shapes and movement and simple storylines that are about what little kids care about: Who has my ball? There are some very nice shows being made for young kids.”

Today, Virgien remains proud that Rugrats had genuine appeal for adults. (Virgien was co-director for The Rugrats Movie in 1998, producer of Rugrats in Paris in 2000 and director of Rugrats Go Wild in 2003.)

Now in his 70s, Virgien is still having a ball as a storyteller. Most recently, he was co-creator of a series set in prehistoric times about a young girl who invents the first wheel as well as other useful tools. Eureka!, which earned a nomination for Outstanding Animated Series at the 2023 NAACP Image Awards, is now streaming on DisneyPlus. 

Virgien has a particular reason for reveling in this work: The girl’s ingenuity as an engineer defies past stereotypes, and encourages young girls to excel in the sciences. “You like to think you’re doing some good in the world as well as making a living,” Virgien said.

His audience in March included students such as Erakky and fellow alumni. Beverly Nash Esson ’73 of Wells, Maine, came to hear Virgien because her children had been Rugrats fans growing up. 

In fact, Esson wrote to Virgien in 1995 and asked him if he would send her, as a fellow �ֲ���ý graduate, a Rugrats drawing, which he did. Esson brought it with her to Virgien’s talk to thank him, and hear the story of his remarkable film career. 

“My son was 6, and he was so thrilled to get this,” Esson said, holding up Virgien’s framed illustration. “My stock in my family really went up.”

In 1876, just as the post-Civil War Reconstruction stalled and white politicians began to roll back the rights of formerly enslaved people, the Emancipation Memorial was erected in Washington, D.C.

The concept of emancipation is more complex than the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., might suggest, says �ֲ���ý professor Charles Nero. (Photo by yeowatzup / CC BY 2.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

The history and ideology behind the word “emancipation” are complex, �ֲ���ý professor Charles Nero told an alumni audience at Reunion on June 7.

Did emancipation happen as depicted in the statue — as a white statesman benevolently freeing the slaves — or was it the result of a war of liberation in which black Americans won their freedom through their own struggle?

The Benjamin E. Mays ’20 Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies, Nero approached his talk — on the life of his professorship’s namesake, civil rights icon Benjamin Mays — with the rhetorician’s attention to the power of words and images.

The 50th Reunion Seminar, organized by the Class of 1969, centered on Mays’ most famous quote relating to �ֲ���ý, from his autobiography, Born To Rebel.

Mays wrote, “�ֲ���ý College did not ‘emancipate’ me; it did far greater service of making it possible for me to emancipate myself and to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man.”

Mays’ description of his �ֲ���ý education is “stylistically very elegant,” Nero said.

When Mays published Born to Rebel in 1971, he’d had many decades to think about emancipation. After graduating from �ֲ���ý and earning a doctorate from the University of Chicago Divinity School, he served for 30 years as president of Morehouse College.

At Morehouse, Mays mentored future civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., becoming known as “the schoolmaster of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Mays’ description of his �ֲ���ý education is “stylistically very elegant,” Nero said.

�ֲ���ý professor Charles Nero discusses the concept of emancipation and the life of Benjamin Mays during a 50th Reunion seminar on June 7. Nero is the Benjamin E. Mays ’20 Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“He is rejecting this idea of emancipation, the idea of emancipation that is in this statue which surely he knew,” he added. “In other words, he is declaring his own agency, his own command of his future. �ֲ���ý College played a role in that.”

At the same time, “�ֲ���ý College is not Lincoln. That’s very important for an African American man to make a statement to that effect.”

Contained in Mays’ idea of emancipation, Nero said, were three additional heavy concepts: religion, gender, and citizenship — all of which Mays used to reject white supremacy.

Mays was a devout Christian minister, and his theology was similar to that of Latin American liberation theology, Nero said. In a 1966 edition of the �ֲ���ý Alumnus, now �ֲ���ý Magazine, Mays recalled how, even as a child, he had decided that if God had made black people inferior to whites, he would not pray to that god.

Benjamin Mays (right), with Martin Luther King Jr., was known as “the schoolmaster of the movement” for teaching and inspiring a generation of civil rights leaders, including King, who called Mays “my spiritual mentor and my intellectual father.”

“He is going to reject white supremacy, and if it requires him to reject his faith, he will do that,” Nero said.

Resisting white supremacy also meant asserting his manhood, Nero said. Here, Nero turned to the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and the sociologist’s famous definition of double-consciousness — the conflicting identities of black men as Americans and African Americans.

Du Bois wrote of feeling best when he could beat his white friends at school or sports. So did Mays — “I thought I would go north for college to compete with whites,” he wrote in the Bulletin. “If I do well there, that would be convincing proof that Negroes are not inferior to white men.”

At �ֲ���ý, Mays had the opportunity to read the Bible critically, in a way that supported his claim of equality with white men.

“I learned that God was no respecter of persons and that I was right in not believing what I had heard in my childhood — that Negroes were inferior,” he wrote in the Alumnus. He also excelled academically and graduated with honors.

A talented debater, Mays won an oratory award for reciting “Imaginary Speech of John Adams,” by Daniel Webster, a speech that emphasizes the divinity of the American push for independence. That Mays won an award for the speech was profound to Nero.

Benjamin E. Mays (middle, back row) poses with a 1919 debate team. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

“�ֲ���ý allowed him the testing ground to demonstrate his masculinity, his manhood, his right to not be an outcast or a stranger in his own house — that is, to be a citizen of the United States,” he said.

Nero then asked his audience to consider emancipation as it related to their time at �ֲ���ý. How did the Class of 1969 grapple with racism and white supremacy?

The late 1960s was, of course, a time when social structures of all kinds came under scrutiny. The Vietnam War was starting to attract widespread protest, and the Civil Rights movement was accompanied by the brutal assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and, earlier, the murders of Medgar Evers and four young girls in an Alabama church.

Depicting candidates Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and George Wallace, this uncredited political cartoon appeared in The �ֲ���ý Student the week before the 1968 presidential election.

Student publications that Nero projected showed deep engagement with the 1968 elections. The campaign of George Wallace, though unlikely to find a friendly audience in the liberal Northeast, advertised in The �ֲ���ý Student. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory, then running as a write-in candidate, appeared on campus.

Students and faculty also wondered how to contend with racism on campus, and how to make �ֲ���ý more inclusive. Robert Chute, a popular professor of biology, wrote a thundering letter demanding radical changes in admissions, financial aid, and the curriculum.

Dick Gregory’s talk at �ֲ���ý in February 1968 was described as a “tour de force on civil rights today” by The �ֲ���ý Student.

One 1968 workshop, “�ֲ���ý College and the Disadvantaged Black Student,” raised questions about how African Americans were represented.

Chantal Berry Dalton ’69, a retired diplomat who was in the Reunion audience, was listed in the workshop’s program as a poetry reader. She said that, as the only black woman in her class, she went to many such workshops and conversations — and did not appreciate how black students were automatically assumed to be disadvantaged.

She said the institutional will to change was there, but it took a lot of work from her and other students of color.

“I spent a lot of hours in a lot of meetings talking about how we were going to change things at �ֲ���ý,” she said. “It was interesting. It was tiring.”

Chantal Berry Dalton ’69 recalls participating in many of �ֲ���ý’ efforts to make the college more inclusive. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Other, white, members of the Class of 1969 said they had little recollection of conversations about racism during their time in college. For some, the burgeoning women’s movement was more salient — at the time, women at �ֲ���ý lived under more restrictive social rules than men.

In fact, for a few, it was only years later that some white audience members understood how white privilege affected their lives.

“Was it your privilege as white people that made you unaware of the kind of labor that emancipation requires?” Nero asked them.

Many of those who spoke up during the talk agreed that emancipation, for �ֲ���ý, is ongoing.

Alicia Hunter Warner ’94 reminds the audience that questions of race and racism are not historical concepts. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“Like many institutions and individuals, �ֲ���ý is growing into its own aspirations in a lot of ways,” said Alicia Hunter Warner ’94, a member of the Alumni Council of the �ֲ���ý Alumni Association.

“I think that there is hope for how we’re changing and what we’re doing as a community, but I do think that we cannot ignore what institutionalized racism in this country is. It is not just our institutions; it’s the fabric of the way we live and interact with each other that keeps self-perpetuating.”

Charles Nero talks with alumni following his Reunion talk on Benjamin Mays and the concept of emancipation. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Despite a recent headline-making report from its board of trustees, we needn’t worry about the Social Security trust fund going broke by 2034, according to a Penn sociologist and �ֲ���ý alumnus.

And why not? “It’s already broke,” according to Richard Gelles ’68. “It’s been broke for 30 years. And what the government has done is, first, continued to pay your benefits out of tax receipts and debt, and second, played politics by scaring the hell out of you.”

Gelles offered his 50th Reunion classmates a June 8 presentation challenging the assertion — expressed in the for the second year in a row — that benefit payments will outstrip the Social Security Administration’s funding source in 16 years.

Rich Gelles ’68, a renowned Penn sociologist, makes a point during his presentation on Social Security during Reunion on June 8.(Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

For their achievement in hitting the 50-year mark, Gelles’ classmates got to hear from a national expert. He is the author of The Third Lie: Why Government Programs Don’t Work — And A Blueprint for Change (Left Coast Press, 2011). Widely known for his research into domestic violence, Gelles is the Joanne T. and Raymond H. Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice.

If the trustees’ report is misleading, Gelles noted, Social Security is by no means problem-free. But its problems are not intractable, and there are ways to address them (he discussed six, each with its own particular baggage) given the political will.

But first, a little history. Established as a “pay-as-you-go” system in which a dedicated payroll tax was channeled directly into benefit payments, the model was changed in the early 1980s in response to a looming federal budget crunch.

“There is a relatively simple solution to this hypothesis. It’s called immigration.”

Among other revisions, the payroll tax was increased to build a trust fund surplus. This surplus was required by law to fund general federal spending, in exchange for interest-bearing bonds — “IOUs,” Gelles called them — redeemable at any time by the Social Security Administration.

The surpluses began in 1984 and are projected to continue into the early 2020s, at which point it’ll be necessary to start liquidating the bonds to meet benefits. And what will happen next, theoretically by 2034, is that all these funding sources together, payroll taxes plus the principal and interest from the bonds, will start to fall short of fully covering benefit payments.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935, surrounded by members of Congress. The woman behind Roosevelt is Frances Perkins, who was the first U.S. Secretary of Labor and the architect of the New Deal — including Social Security as well as the 40-hour work week, child labor laws, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and more. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Then the federal government will have a huge financial obligation “that by law it must still pay,” Gelles explained. “The government will have to take on greater debt than it is taking now … And the [federal] deficit is going to go up, given the tax cuts that we implemented last year.”

Another structural problem facing Social Security is demographic and well-known: The number of workers who pay the taxes to fund the benefits will decrease even as the number of beneficiaries — notably the demographic bulge that is the baby boom generation — increases.

“There is a relatively simple solution to this hypothesis,” Gelles said. “It’s called immigration.”

“The educational system in large cities is so dysfunctional that we’re not creating enough productive workers.”

Conversely, he said, “if we crack down on immigration, we’re going to create two problems. One, we’re going to cap Gross National Product growth,” probably at around 2 percent. “And two, we’re exacerbating the [Social Security funding] problem.” That shortfall, Gelles said, “really goes away if you increase the workforce.”

Because it takes at least 18 years for someone born here to become a full-fledged member of the workforce, encouraging immigration offers the quickest way to increase that resource. In Gelles’ words, opening up immigration is the “low-hanging fruit” in strengthening Social Security.

Another potential measure to enlarge the workforce seems, especially in the current political and social climate, like another heavy lift: Improve the educational system so that there are more qualified workers.

“The educational system in large cities is so dysfunctional that we’re not creating enough productive workers,” Gelles said. “But that’s infinitely more complex than fixing immigration.”

Here’s a tried-and-true step: Continue to tweak the cost-of-living adjustment, popularly known as COLA. “That seems to be the most practical one of all, an age-specific cost-of-living adjustment,” he said, “so that benefits stay the same or rise depending on the real cost of living that those of us over 65 years of age encounter.”

He said, “The cost-of-living is significantly lower for those of us in our 60s and 70s than it was when we were starting out in the workforce. To apply a 30-year-old’s cost of living to a 70-year-old overestimates what we need.”

Raising the age of eligibility for Social Security, which was one of the measures taken in the early ’80s, would also help stretch the trust fund. But as Gelles pointed out, it would cause hardship among less-affluent retirees.

Christine Hager ‘68 and Jack Pickard ‘68 listen to classmate Richard Gelles present his Reunion Seminar on “Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke” on June 8. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

“If you’re in the top 10 percent of wage earners, it’s not going to affect you that much” to wait a year or two longer. But Social Security benefits will come as a necessity, not a bonus, for many retirees.

How about raising the level of wage-earners’ income subject to Social Security taxes? It helped in the 1980s and could help again — if you could sell it. Currently capped at $128,700, it already encroaches on the top 10 percent of earners, Gelles pointed out. “If you continue to move it up, you’re going to begin to lose political support for Social Security.”

“So go home, enjoy your Social Security, don’t pay that much attention to government reports.”

Conservatives continue to tolerate Social Security because the program is seen not as welfare or an entitlement, but as a form of social insurance. People in the political middle and fiscal conservatives such as Gelles don’t want to see it morph from a social insurance program to a wealth-transfer mechanism.

“The minute it becomes viewed as an entitlement or another form of welfare, you’re going to lose a tremendous amount of political support.”

The remedy most likely to succeed in today’s Congress is an increase in the Social Security tax rate, currently at 12.4 percent per individual, paid half-and-half by employees and employers. “Congress likes regressive taxes more than progressive taxes,” Gelles noted — progressive taxes being those that increase in proportion to taxpayers’ income, and regressive being the ones that less affluent folks feel the most.

“So go home, enjoy your Social Security, don’t pay that much attention to government reports,” Gelles reassured his classmates. “Even CNN got this wrong.”

Two �ֲ���ý alumni and two members of the faculty received awards during Reunion Weekend, including James Owens ’87, who received the Benjamin E. Mays Medal for his contributions to literacy around the world.

The Mays Medal, the Alumni Association’s highest award, honors an alumnus or alumna who has “performed distinguished service to the worldwide community and been deemed a �ֲ���ý College graduate of outstanding accomplishment.”

James Owens ’87: Benjamin E. Mays Medal

�ճ����citation for Owens‘ award reads, in part:

Published in 2017, The World Is Just a Book Away weaves together the unique stories of 60 contributors — from Nobel laureates to actors, humanitarians, and many more — who at first glance have little in common. But as James skillfully demonstrates, these prominent people all share something important: Their lives have been influenced by a love of books and reading.

It was during this passion project that James was inspired to not only write about the power of literacy, but also to physically deliver it to those who need it most…. In the nine years since its inception, The World Is Just a Book Away has built 90 libraries, three of which are mobile. At one site in Indonesia, books are delivered by horseback to 10 remote schools atop a volcano. This revolutionary approach is effecting meaningful change within some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

James Owens ’87, recipient of the Benjamin E. Mays Medal, poses with �ֲ���ý College President Clayton Spencer. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Dr. Louis Weinstein ’68: Sesquicentennial Award

The Sesquicentennial Award honors an alumnus or alumni for “a single academic, artistic, or scientific achievement.”

The citation for Weinstein’s award reads, in part:

Louis’ remarkable work resulting in the discovery of a severe form of preeclampsia has been cited as one of the 10 most important publications in the field of obstetrics in the 20th century. He was a young doctor serving his fellowship in 1979 when Louis experienced his first pre-natal maternal death of a patient — an experience that would alter the course of his career….

Guided by the methods of scientific inquiry he learned at �ֲ���ý, Louis sought to explore this often missed or misdiagnosed ailment. He spent the next two years studying similar cases and providing medical care to women exhibiting related symptoms.

�ֲ���ý College President Clayton Spencer shakes the hand of Dr. Louis Weinstein ’68, recipient of the Sesquicentennial Award. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Georgia Nigro and Rob Farnsworth: Distinguished Service Awards

Presented by the College Key, the Distinguished Service Award recognizes ”the dedication and excellence offered to the college by truly distinguished members of the faculty and staff.” The citation for Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro’s award reads, in part:

As an alumna noted, “She is an amazing teacher and role model.” Georgia is a developmental psychologist by training whose work inspires students to think about what they can bring to relationships with community partners, not just what they can get out of the relationship. She holds students to a high standard and engages them at the highest intellectual level.

Senior Lecturer in English Rob Farnsworth and Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro, who are married, receive Distinguished Service Awards from the College Key. (Andree Kehn for �ֲ���ý College)

The citation for Senior Lecturer in English Rob Farnsworth, who retired  from the faculty in 2018 after 26 years, reads, in part:

Students describe him as “a titan of the abstract and the concrete” and as a “wise sage.” “How stupid of me not to take more of his classes!” one exclaims. They speak of his brilliance and humility; his “faith in poetry and people;” his generosity as a reader of their work. “Professor Farnsworth…opened a door of joyful sound and allowed us all to walk freely through it,” as one remembers it.

Reunion is a time to reunite on campus with classmates and friends — but also for a �ֲ���ý community spanning 65 years to gather and celebrate.

On Friday evening, alumni and their families and friends, from the Class of 1948 through the Class of 2013, ooh’ed and ahh’ed at spectacular fireworks over Lake Andrews.

The following morning, after a 5k race and mimosas, everyone lined up on the Historic Quad for a Reunion centerpiece: the Alumni Parade. Classes cheered each other on as they marched or rode.

The setting was relaxing, a bright and comfortable first-floor lounge in Chu Hall, for discussing a topic that can seem taxing: the college search.

Held last Saturday morning, the Reunion session gave alumni and their college-bound some practical and heartening advice from three admission experts.

The offerings came from Darryl Uy, who is director of admission at �ֲ���ý, and fellow admission experts Aya Murata ’92 and Katie Moran Madden ’93.

Here are a few tips and observations from the session.

Aya Murata ’92 (center), a college counselor at Phillips Academy, speaks to the alumni gathering during Reunion. At right is �ֲ���ý Director of Admission Darryl Uy, and at left is Katie Moran Madden ’93, senior associate director at Dartmouth. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Reverse Your Thinking

“Families sometimes go at the college process backwards,” said Uy, who joined �ֲ���ý in 2016. “They have an idea of where they want to go to college, then they do everything they can to get there.”

Instead, he suggested, the process should “start with you, the student — who you are, what you are interested in, and what you might want to do. Then find the schools that match your values and interests, rather than vice versa.”

It’s All About the Why

“How does a student find a college that matches their interests?” asked a parent, Elizabeth Leavitt Nemirovsky ’88 asked.

The answer is actually a question: “Why?”

Because the college search begins with self-awareness and personal assessment, “a lot of this process is about the why,” said Uy. “It’s OK to say you want to be a lawyer, or be pre-med, or pursue engineering, but ask yourself why. What sparked that interest? Is it what you want to do, or is because of societal or parental pressure?”

The process of identifying a college that feels right to your child is “about the why,” says Darryl Uy, director of admission at �ֲ���ý (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

From there, a student can ask other questions. “How are you motivated? Is it competition or  grades or just wanting to do your best?” From there, students can then look at environmental factors. “Do you want a big university or a smaller college? Close or far from home?”

Put on Blinders

Murata, who is a college counselor at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., was attending Reunion with husband Mike Charland ’93 and their two children, one of whom is a rising high school senior.

She encourages students and their families to “be willing and able to put on blinders.” That means trying to tune out all the noise around the college search “and look internally and reflect on what’s important to you. Don’t key off what is out there.”

Instead of paying attention to what everyone else is doing, “investigate your own personal desires, inspirations, interests, and what you are curious about. Let that be the driver.”

Try to ignore the college-search chatter, “the advice from the second chair of the trumpet section, or your teammate’s opinion about a particular college, or what your English classmate says you are ‘supposed’ to do over the summer. Let it go: Be confident in listening to your inner voice.”

To be sure, there is no “predictive formula” when it comes to the college search, said Madden,  who is a senior associate director of admission at Dartmouth.

“So rather than trying to squeeze yourself into some magic admission formula that doesn’t even exist,” added Murata, “be authentic to who you are. Think about the things that matter most to you.”

You Hear the Wrong Things

In terms of comfort, each expert noted how the media (and well-meaning family members, friends, and others) tend to fixate on how the college admission process is about not getting into college, when, in reality, it’s exactly about the opposite.

“Everything you read is about who does not get in where — and speculation about why,” said Madden. “But in reality, most everyone lands somewhere and goes on to have a very positive experience.”

It’s About Academics — And More

“If one part of you is not aligned in college — if the academics are great but the community doesn’t feel right — you won’t bring your best self to your college experience,” said Murata.

She should know. As a high school senior deciding between �ֲ���ý and another college, Murata chose the other. In her first year, “the personal fit was not what I imagined college to be.” Greek life on campus didn’t suit her. “The community felt divided.”

So she transferred to �ֲ���ý. “That was life-changing,” and it was an a-ha moment that has stuck with her. “I realized, so this is what people talk about when they talk about ‘fit.’”

The lesson: You should be able to see yourself in your college community.

Let Uncertainty Be Part of the Process

Students get peppered with that awful question, “So, what are you thinking about for college?” That applies “unneeded pressure,” Murata told the parents.

Instead, Murata shared advice that she picked up from �ֲ���ý’ Purposeful Work program, specifically that adults can help students identify their interests, because identifying what interests us is the first step toward discovering purposeful work — and it turns out, a college that fits.

“Try asking your child something like, ‘Hey, tell me about what you are studying these days that is piquing your interest?’”

Adults can also be reflectors: reminding students of experiences, such as a favorite class, topic, or program, that jazzed them and thus might hint at a future college interest.

“As a student, you have a right to be uncertain and to explore. You don’t need to have it figured out. You don’t need a grand master plan. You can be in a place where you are unsure. That is OK.”

Values Matter

Colleges often talk about their values and culture, and those can seem like highfalutin concepts to a 17-year-old. They’re not.

“Students should ask about the values of a college and how those values are transmitted throughout the institution,” says Murata because they affect student life. Take �ֲ���ý, for example. “�ֲ���ý values permeate this community, and those values in turn become part of the culture a student experiences.”

President Clayton Spencer speaks to admitted students and their families during a campus reception in April. A record number of prospective students applied to the incoming Class of 2022. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Still, “the cultural piece is hard to get your hands on from a college publication or website.” So Murata advises students to be active in their visits. “Talk to the tour guides. Take time on campus to hang out or have lunch with a student, if that’s offered. Sit on a bench and watch how people move from class to class.”

Just Connect

Not all students are able to visit a campus. Whether you can visit or not, there are creative ways to gather the more amorphous information. For one, students should check out a college’s social channels or student-driven social channels.

“No matter where you are in the world, you can be on a ,” said Madden. “It’s a different way to connect but you can still connect.”

The Early Decision Question

Uy has heard this line from students: “They’ll say, ‘I want to apply Early Decision, but I don’t know what college.’” Problem is, “that’s like saying, ‘I want to get married, I just don’t know to whom yet.’”

Early Decision makes sense for the student who is all-in on one college. But you need to feel a total commitment to a college. “Ninety-nine percent is not enough because that 1 percent of doubt will eat at you all senior year and make you question your decision,” Uy said.

You Control Your Essay

Simply put, the essay matters. “It’s one of the more important pieces in the application beyond the numeric measures of data, such as your high school transcript,” said Uy.

From the college’s perspective, “it helps us understand who you are as an individual: What motivates you, what inspires you, how you will fit into the community, how you will inspire your peers, how you will challenge yourself.”

Importantly, it is also “part of the process that you control,” said Madden.

The Seinfeld Approach to the Essay

Uy and Madden made it clear that your essay should not hinge on epic or cataclysmic events in your life. “It’s not an exercise in the bizarre,” adds Uy, recalling an essay about dating that recounting the applicant’s “first time.”

Some of the best essays can be “Seinfeldian,” he said. “They could be about nothing but a few moments in your ordinary life that I can’t find anywhere else in your application. If you could take me into your life for 5 minutes, I think that is a successful essay.”

Still, they say, the personal essay does hinge on good writing and an authentic voice.

“Try to find a topic that resonates with you and your experiences so your personality and voice can shine through,” Uy said. “Don’t curate yourself to the point you are not authentic,” added Madden.

Essay Do’s and Don’t’s

“If you’re not funny in real life, don’t try to be funny in your essay. That rarely works,” Uy said.

Students might think twice about arguing a current issue or cause in their essay — but not because it might be controversial. “We want to know about your interests or political perspectives, because we are all shaping communities and we’re trying to encourage dialogue,” Madden said.

Alumni and their college-bound children listen to Darryl Uy, Aya Murata ’92, and Katie Moran Madden ’93 during the June 9 Reunion conversation about the college search. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Rather, in writing about a current issue or cause, “we often learn more about the cause than about you,” explained Madden. And that defeats the goal of the essay.

He also advised against writing about death, divorce, and depression. Not because they’re taboo or upsetting, but because “those topics are very difficult for a 17-year-old to address in 650 words in a way that is going to come across as mature and reflective. The treatment we see is often clichéd.”

A Question of Merit

To put their best foot forward, students need to understand what colleges have to do: “We’re evaluating applications from more qualified applicants than we have seats in our class,” said Madden.

To do that, “we assess merit, and each college or university may assess merit differently, depending on their own individual communities and institutional needs,” she explains.

To assess academic merit, colleges look at a range of factors, especially the transcript.

“We also assess merit through extracurricular activities and talents. We assess it through your intellectual engagement, which we glean from your writing and your recommendations.

The essay, she says, offers students an opportunity to share their personal qualities and what they value. “And that is about merit, too,” she said. “All of us are trying to shape a community. And we try not to create a community of people with similar talents, interests, perspectives.”

To that end, “make the essay about you. It doesn’t have to be exciting. It doesn’t have to move us.”

Parents Who Push

Murata handled a question about parents who call the shots on college choice.

While she can play the role of “intermediary” on occasion, “ultimately the student does have to advocate for their education. It’s not the parent or guardian who is going to college. But it is tricky if a parent says, ‘I’m paying so you go where I want you to go.’”

Prospective students tour �ֲ���ý in early April. Through social media or a virtual tour, students can get a feel of a college’s culture even if they are not able to visit. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Her advice is to take a long view and try to avoid “drawing a line in the sand.” In other words, try to have “ongoing conversations” that help the parents come to see that their child’s happiness and opportunity to thrive is at stake.  “Help your parents reflect on who you are. Help them see how you would be supported at one school versus another.”

Start Fresh

She reminded parents that “it’s been a long time since we’ve been in college, and colleges have changed a lot since we went through the process.”

“Both students and parents need to start the college process with a clean slate and an open mind.”

Often, well-meaning parents and relatives can “have very outdated perceptions of schools, and that can be difficult for some students to push back on. Both students and parents need to start the college process with a clean slate and an open mind.”

Above all, she said, the college search — from the college a student wants to attend to the one they attend — is “not a referendum on your skills as a parent.”

Instead, “try to focus on what is best for them: a learning community where they can jump in with both feet and follow their interests and curiosities and feel connected both inside and outside the classroom.”

A Recommendation about Recommenders

In addition to controlling their essay, students also have more control than they think when in comes to recommendations.

“You choose who you ask for recommendations,” Madden said. “So choose teachers who know you well — not just teachers whose courses you got an A in.”

“Seek out teachers they’ve engaged with and people who know them well.”

“Let’s say you got an A in math. Maybe you do well in math because it comes naturally to you. So you choose the teacher on that basis, and the recommendation that we get says, basically, ‘She’s really good at math.’”

Since talent is pretty easy to identify — and since every student applying to college will have some talent in something — that’s an unhelpful recommendation.

Instead, “we encourage students to seek out teachers they’ve engaged with and people who know them well.” Such teachers might be ones who’ve “seen you take a dissenting opinion in class, or seen you collaborate with peers, or seen you take feedback or setbacks well.”

When a recommendation shares that information, it “brings you, your personality, what you will add to the classroom to life.”

Dinner Rules

Families should establish some ground rules before they begin the college search so that every encounter between parent/guardian and child isn’t always about college. A longstanding piece of advice is for families to set aside a specific time each week to talk about the college process. It’s a time to share what each of you needs,” Murata said.

And try not to have that be during your family dinner. “If every family dinner is going to be about the college search or SATs or some college-related checklist, I guarantee family dinner won’t be much fun.”