Reunion 2024: Alumni Assembly

Transcript

Alumni Choir with John Rommereim:

[“Earth Song” by Frank Ticheli (1962)]

Bernadine Douglas:

Thank you to our organist, Michael Elsbernd, and Alumni Choir led by John Rommereim for their beautiful introduction to our program. Good afternoon. My name is Bernadine Douglas, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations. And while this is my first Reunion, this weekend marks the 144th Reunion for Grinnell College, and I know what looks seamless is the result of many months of work by the DAR staff, including Jayn Chaney, Guinevere Wallace Natarelli, Mary Zug, Jessica Herzberg, and Bethany Conover. And while this is very much a team effort, these wonderful people — and I forgot one, Nino Parker, I saw him walk by — we’re the ones on the front lines working hand in hand with 118 individual class volunteers. Thank you to my DAR colleagues and thank you to our amazing reunion and class volunteers. I also want to thank our Alumni Council members for their sponsorship of today’s Assembly as well as this morning’s program, View from Grinnell. Would all current and emeritus Alumni Council members please stand? With us today are also a number of our current retired and life trustees. Would you please stand and be recognized?

I was thinking about what I would say to all of you today when I saw a news segment about resilient architecture. In general, this refers to building’s ability to prevent damage or recover when damage occurs. Buildings should, when built well, support the larger community. But funny thing about resilience — it is actually not an ensured steady state. Environments change, communities change, and what a community needs from a building must also change to accommodate those for which it was built to serve. So, it is important that there are periodic checks of a building’s foundation and structure to ensure both are indeed sound and able to withstand its current situation. We, like buildings, require reexamination, reinspection, and retrospection. We require rejuvenation, relaxation, and yes, moments to realign our actions with our values. That’s what reunions do, and that is especially what a Grinnell College Reunion aspires to do for all who return. The moment I met President Anne Harris, her love, her belief in, and passion for Grinnell were more than evident. It literally overflowed. I felt like I imitated her when I did that, too. You’ll see.

This continues today, and under her leadership, Grinnell has, and continues to face, its own moments of realignment and, yes, restoration. From creating a safe haven when Black students face racist harassment to finding space for collaboration with students during collective bargaining process and most recently, seeking to hold peace on the campus as the Israel and Hamas war raged. Anne Harris is a leader that strives to call this community time and time again into relationship with each other and the values we claim to hold dear. I am honored that I get to do this work with her and all of you. Please join me in welcoming Grinnell’s 14th President Anne Harris.

President Anne F. Harris:

Every time Bernadine speaks, I know what it is that I seek to honor. Thank you so much, Bernadine. Hello, Grinnellians. Dear Grinnellians, looking out at beautiful, powerful you, I’m reminded as I was last year of the medieval Scandinavian word for gathering. When one Viking people would gather, it was called a thing, and it is where we get the word “thing.” “Are you going to the thing?” “Yes.” When all the people, people would gather it was called the “Althing.” So welcome to the Grinnell Althing.

Now, I’ve had occasion in the past to use this Alumni Assembly time with you to provide a kind of state of the College. This year, through the generosity of his time and expertise, I was able to do so with Michael Kahn ’74 and chair of the Board of Trustees during The View from Grinnell session this morning. It was early, so some of you may have watched it through the livestream. If you didn’t catch it, no worries at all. It’ll be available to you after Reunion to catch up on all things Grinnell. And so, with this gift of time, I’m going to invite you to think instead with me on the theme of pareidolia in the prairie.

It’s a strange word in an often or sometimes wonderfully strange place. Now, I shared the word pareidolia with our 2024 graduates at Commencement and I’ve been thinking about you ever since and excited for the opportunity to deepen an exploration of this word with you as we prepare to cheer and cherish the alumni who inspire us and the communities and experiences they shape.

This theme of pareidolia and the prairie is really a meditation on the place and purpose of Grinnell in a fraught and wondrous world — right now; maybe 25 years ago, class of ’99; or 50 years ago, class of 1974; or 70 years ago, class of ’54. Ultimately, this theme of pareidolia and the prairie, the love letter to each and every one of you for your courage and your brilliance and how you, every single person in this room and on this livestream, have shaped Grinnell and more. So, pareidolia in the prairie. First, in good Grinnell fashion, let’s question the terms. So, pareidolia, P-A-R-E-I-D-O-L-I-A, pareidolia — that’s my shout out to spelling bees — is a term of cognitive perception for the tendency to perceive a specific and often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. So pareidolia happens when someone sees a famous figure in a piece of toast.

So Elvis often shows up in toast. Or sees an animal in a cloud. Children will often see an animal in a cloud or a person’s silhouette in the sand. Pareidolia is a shift in perception from the ambiguous and strange to the meaningful and known. I love that we do this as a species and of course, I wonder if other species do it, too. I love that we have this restlessness that seeks meaning, even in toast and even in clouds, even in sand, let alone in our interactions with each other, let alone in the world within which we live. Pareidolia speaks to the human creativity and will to find meaning in randomness and maybe even wonder in ambiguity. It can also speak to the experience of four years at Grinnell, certainly to the last few years at Grinnell, perhaps your years at Grinnell.

So, on to the word prairie, then. Coming to Grinnell or returning to Grinnell inevitably includes an encounter with the prairie. Ripples in land shaped by glaciers, undulations in land bearing the memory of geological and human upheavals.

Those form the frame of our gathering. The prairie has meant very different things to very different Grinnellians. A layered space, a blank canvas, a stark stretch, an invitation to possibility, a reminder of loneliness, a surprise of light and connection and meaning. In its multiplicity and random or ambiguous visual patterns, the prairie is both geologically and allegorically a place that cultivates pareidolia. That invites us, sometimes challenges us, to make meaning from ambiguous forms. To gather here at Grinnell, so as to work and think and learn together to find each other, to make meaning. And how we gather matters. Where we gather matters. The presence and space of Renfrow Hall to honor and cherish Mrs. Renfrow Smith and the core of Grinnell’s history shaped by Black Grinnellians matter. The designation of 1527 Broad Street, you may have known it as the Fellows House, as the Hannah Alumni House for M.E. Hannah ’58.

To honor and host all alumni to gather and discover and find meaning matters. Finding meaning in what confounds us is arguably what both college and life are all about. From the conversations I’ve had this weekend, it’s arguably what Reunion is about — to make sense of the past or the present from the kaleidoscopic gathering of Grinnell alumni. To learn from Professors Kesho Scott and Will Freeman and Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Wayne Moyer and Sarah Purcell and Bill Ferguson and John Rommereim. Thank you, beloved faculty, to learn about each other anew or again. From all of the ways that you share your experiences, your grief, your joy with each other or in your own self-reflection. This is what pareidolia in the prairie is. This is what Grinnellians do, what our students do, what you do in finding meaning in what is multiple and confounding and bewildering. Think of the elusive scientific experiment, the poem that seeks its ending, the conflict that shirks resolution, the injustice that defies human dignity.

This is what the alumni that we are honoring today have done. They have shifted perception and found meaning through the lens of their expertise and energies as advocates, educators, physicians, scientists, healers, diplomats, architects of social change, and originators of creative solutions. You have fostered human dignity and thriving, and we are here to say thank you, as we are inspired by you, as your brilliance, your light, your pareidolia strengthens our resolve to carry out our study and work and life in admiration and honor of yours.

The true beauty of pareidolia and the prairie, to my mind, is given to us in the magnificent 2018 novel, The Overstory by Richard Powers. And if you need summer reading, this is a good one. Yes. In The Overstory, which by the way opens in Iowa, pareidolia is described as the adaptation that makes people see people in all things. I find that an exhilarating way to think of pareidolia, that it’s an indication that we are adapted to find each other in the random, in the absurd, in the ambiguous, in the complex, that we seek each other out in what confounds us.

It takes courage and perseverance and grace to do that, and it is what you do, dear Grinnellians. It is why you will always be held dearly and loved deeply by your alma mater, by this College for each other and for the world you shape. In closing, I will invite you to think with me — and there’s a video to help us do that — of Grinnellians yet to be Grinnellians in becoming the faculty and staff who will join us this fall to lend their energies and expertise to our mission and our always evolving definition of the common good. And the students. The students who will be coming and returning to campus this fall who are in a marvelous and turbulent and perpetual process of making meaning from what is bewildering, who are poignantly and persistently seeking each other in what is confounding, who are leading the way for us to learn from them, for us to cheer and champion them. And what you make possible for our students through your mentorship and your philanthropy is the hope for generations in this fraught and wondrous world. It is the brilliance of pareidolia in the prairie.

Thank you.

Bernadine Douglas:

A phrase that I’ve heard a lot has been, the world needs more Grinnellians, and I’ve thought a lot about what that means. It means we support one another, it means we support them. And so many of you are supporting them through your giving, and I want to thank you. Thank you to each and every class, whether you created a scholarship or an internship, you are making possible for the next generation what you continue to benefit from today. Joining me in thanking you are just a few of our amazing students, some of my amazing colleagues here at Grinnell. Have a wonderful weekend.

Princess Joseph ’25:

Hi, my name is Princess Joseph. I will be in the graduating class of 2025 from Grinnell. Last summer I was a recipient of the Jonathan Higgins ’80 Internship in Environmental Conservation. We were engaged in doing plan surveys for projects that the trust was pursuing, insect surveys in different parts of the island, establishing a new hiking trail, which the trust plan to put an education center on, and I was able to accompany the Department of Natural Resources, which is a very close partner of the National Trust, on many bird surveys. Overall, this was an amazing experience, and I’m very grateful that I was able to spend the time in Montserrat. I think that there are many lessons and skills that I will be able to carry from my experience with the Montserrat National Trust into our future career, potentially in conservation or natural resource management.

Joseph Bagnoli Jr.:

I learned years ago that access without support is not the same thing as opportunity. Since the early 1980s, Grinnell’s need-blind admission policy has ensured that students are admitted to the College without regard for their financial circumstances. What makes what we do at Grinnell special is that we meet 100% of every student’s demonstrated financial need. Historically underrepresented students who qualify for admission at Grinnell should not have to be concerned about their families being able to afford the cost of attendance. We help underwrite the costs associated with education at Grinnell through a no-loan financial aid package. If you have already made a gift to this commitment, thank you, and if you’re considering such a gift, I hope you will help us turn access into opportunity for future Grinnellians.

William Officer ’24:

Hi, I’m William Officer. I’m a graduate of the class of 2024, currently majoring in computer science and mathematics, and I’d like to express my gratitude for the Daniel Follmer ’05 Scholarship. Without the Daniel Follmer Scholarship, I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the many great opportunities here at Grinnell, whether that’s the dedicated professors, the rigorous academic environment in the very small, tight-knit community that’s helpful for that building a very strong character that you can then take into the future with you. As a senior at Grinnell College, I’ll be moving on from the College and eventually moving on to take on my own aspirations and take the lessons I’ve learned from Grinnell.

Beronda Montgomery:

You’ve just had the opportunity to hear the experience of two of our amazing students. Those students and other Grinnell students are supported by the generosity of alumni like you. Welcome back to campus. Thank you for coming back for Reunion and thank you for your continued generosity and support of Grinnell students.

Bernard Jackson ’86:

Good evening, everybody.

I’m Bernard Jackson, class of 1986. I’ve had the pleasure of serving the Alumni Council for the past five years. I spent this past year as council president. The council had quite a productive year, including some valuable discussions about the relationship between alumni and philanthropy to the College. Also have a chance to serve on the Board of Trustees and I’ll learned a ton. So, I want to thank you, Michael, for your leadership on the Board of Trustees. We would like to thank the 816 donors from our reunion classes so far, this fiscal year, 816, for your continued support. We can provide current and future students with opportunity to go forth into the world and do great things. We want to provide special thanks to the newly created scholarships this year, the Class of 1999 Endowed Scholarship and the Class of 1979 Georgia Dentel Endowed Fellowship Fund. That’s great. Many classes have funds. They have worked to create support, and this year we want to highlight the 50th reunion class, 1974, for adding over $225,000 in gifts and commitments to their Class of 1974 Scholarship as part of their comprehensive class gift totaling over $2.2 million. The fantastic leadership of many classes are demonstrated by four reunion classes who have raised over $1 million in gifts and commitments to the College this year. Those classes are the classes of 1980, 1979, 1978, and 1974.

Get ready for this. Collectively, all reunion classes have raised $9,435,512 — by the way, that’s my yearly salary — in total — I’m a philosophy professor, stop Bernard — in total gifts and commitments. Please join me in thanking the leadership of each reunion class for the continued support of Grinnell College students. Thank you so much.

Each year, two graduating seniors are selected to receive Alumni Senior Awards from the Alumni Council. Two weeks ago, at Baccalaureate during Commencement weekend, my council colleague Becky Reetz Neal ’65 had the pleasure, had the pleasure of presenting awards on behalf of the Alumni Council to two graduating seniors — Zoey Nahmmacher-Baum and Brian Goodell, two graduates who embody the best of the Grinnell experience. Give those two a hand, you all.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our colleague, past president of the Alumni Council and chair of the Alumni Awards Committee, Robert Gehorsam ’76, to kick off presentation of the Alumni Award. Robert.

Robert Gehorsam ’76:

Thank you Bernard, and good afternoon everyone. I think we all know that Grinnell experience does not end at Commencement, and today, we’ll present awards to 12 alumni who demonstrate just that. These alumni have distinguished themselves in their careers and in their service to their communities, to their professions, and to Grinnell College itself.

Before we present this year’s awards, however, I’d like to recognize the numerous past recipients of the awards who are here on campus for this Reunion. And so with those of you who are recipients and are present, please stand. Wow.

So the selection of these awards recipients is one activity in which the Alumni Council focuses a great deal of attention. This is the second or third time that I’ve been involved in it in the five years I’ve been on council, and it makes me realize also how really difficult Joe Bagnoli’s job is to bring students to campus. Everyone is so impressive. Everyone is deserving. Choices have to be made. But we make these decisions with a lot of thoughtful care. So as past president of council, I had the task of chairing the Awards Committee, but fortunately I was joined by other council members.

So, I’d like to recognize and thank the members of the committee from this past year, Ed Atkins ’66, Shelly Harper ’87, Ann Stein Velma ’84, and Ken Schofield ’71. I think Ken is here, hopefully, but maybe not present. So now I also want to take a moment. This is something new here, to say thank you to Jonah Pratt ’24 and Craig Gibbens ’95 of who’s manager of STEW Makerspace for making these beautiful keepsake awards for the recipients. So, Jonah, I think you designed and crafted, there’s a gorgeous, embossed pen made of walnut from campus trees that fell down during the 2020 derecho. Something good always comes out of something awful. Along with the display holder that has an engraved, anodized aluminum plaque with each recipient’s name and the year of the award. Next year, we are going to humbly make a request that the makerspace have toasters ready to honor all the meaning that next year’s recipients are going to make. And I’ll leave it to each person’s imagination as to what that is.

So, the process includes receiving award nominations from fellow classmates, other alumni, faculty, staff, and no surprise, even family members. Each nomination is carefully considered. I have to tell you that when we go through it, every committee member just goes through some intense imposter syndrome, right? These alumni have done what, and who are we? Well, we have to make the choice. It’s not easy, and you do realize how remarkable the Grinnell community is.

So, right now, we’re going to get down to it. And we’re going to recognize and celebrate our 2024 alumni recipients. The short citations that will be read only include a small portion of their accomplishments, and so you all have QR codes on the program that will have a full list of what each of these people has and continues to accomplish.

So, award recipients, you’ll come forward to receive your award after the citation is read, I’ll be down to give that to you with Bernadine’s help. Thank you. And please, I think, Jeremy, you want to get a photo, so please pause so we can do that, and we’ll go through it. And so right now I’d like to invite my other council colleague, Tony Pham ’03, to come forward and tell us about each of the awardees.

Tony Pham ’03:

Our first recipient fought for decades in the trenches and out of the spotlight for the integrity of Missouri’s families. Until her recent retirement, this alum practiced public interest law representing hundreds of indigent clients, including Hurricane Katrina victims, parents facing loss of their children, and death row inmates. In 1999, she organized the Parental Justice Program in St. Louis as a prototype for holistic support services for members of families in crisis. This awardee provided parents with free legal representation for the wrongful removal of their children into foster care. She has reunited more than 400 children with their parents. We are pleased to honor Kathleen DuBois ’74 with a 2024 Grinnell College Alumni Award.

Our next recipient’s creativity, commitment, and collaboration to provide exceptional opportunities for high school and college students took shape at Grinnell and continued throughout her impactful career in public service, public schools, and higher education. She was honored to be among the first stewards of Grinnell’s Black Cultural Center and among the first to major in Black studies. At Gustavus Adolphus College, this alum led campus-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives in the 1990s — decades before the birth of DEI-related jobs. From 2001 to 2016, she served as assistant vice chancellor for student development and campus activities and student affairs and North Carolina A&T. This honoree returned to Grinnell in 2014 to help plan Black Alumni Weekend. We are delighted to honor Denise Iverson-Payne ’74 with a 2024 award.

Regarded as one of America’s top doctors for cancer treatment, our next honoree has dedicated his life to medical research and treating patients. A professor emeritus at the University of California San Diego, this alum spent the last two decades studying cancer gene therapy, oncolytic viral therapy, and gastroenterology oncology. He has led numerous drug trials, established 25 patents and inventions, and authored or co-authored over 100 medical research papers and articles. This awardee also has started three companies, including Epicentrx, which in 2022 was awarded a $500,000 Michael J. Fox Foundation grant to evaluate activity in Parkinson’s disease. We are thrilled to honor Tony Reid ’78 with a 2024 award.

Our next recipient cites Grinnell’s liberal arts curriculum, independent research, and an engaged, socially conscious student body as a recipe for success. Grinnell prepared him well for the next 12 years of his career as a trainee and faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. Since then, this alum has been a busy interventional and general cardiologist at Essential Medical Group in Indianapolis, leading a national cardiovascular program across 150 hospitals in 18 states, participating in over 75 clinical trials and publishing over 60 papers, serving as president of the American College of Cardiology, and recently being inducted into the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. Please join me in congratulating Ed Fry ’79.

With the steadfast commitment to Grinnell College, our next alumni award recipient has provided skillful leadership and wise counsel to her alma mater for decades. A trustee from 2006 to 2022, she never missed a meeting, serving stints as the board’s vice chair and chair of the Governance and Advancement Committees. This alum has taken part in three presidential searches, hosted regional activities in the Twin Cities, served on the Alumni Council, and assisted with student recruitment and alumni student connections. She also has demonstrated her compassion and optimistic view of human potential throughout her career as a licensed marriage and family therapist. We are pleased to present Trish Fitzgibbons Anderson ’80.

With a seemingly unending energy for politics and social justice causes, our next award recipient has worked to address racism, economic inequality, generational poverty, and structural problems inherent in processes and systems. At the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, she developed community and outreach programs before shifting back to legal work, managing a team of attorneys regulating the charitable nonprofit sector. The substantial list of volunteerism for this alum includes service to the ACLU, a women’s day shelter, an organization committed to food rescue, legal observer at protests and rallies, and voter protection management and training during the last five presidential elections. We are thrilled to present Nora Mann ’80 with the 2024 award.

The next alumna award recipient has served with distinction as a U.S. diplomat for over 17 years in some of the most challenging assignments in the Foreign Service, such as a security council negotiator at the U.S. Mission in New York, and as a political reporting officer in the Middle East, including in Iraq during the ISIS invasion. Throughout it all, she has never lost her idealism or desire to put people first. In her most recent assignment as the head of the U.S. Consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 2020 to 2023, this alum’s work ranged from strengthening economic ties to supporting minority groups in Greece, such as women and girls interested in entrepreneurship and technology, as well as supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. We are delighted to honor Liz Lee ’99 with a 2024 award.

The next honoree has infused the core value of improving health for all throughout everything she has done. This alum is an epidemiologist and international public health expert whose work focuses on vaccine development with a particular focus on immunocompromised and underserved populations. She joined Moderna as a lead epidemiologist for COVID vaccines in May 2020 and proved that an effective vaccine could be developed, tested, and made widely available in a rapid timeframe. This Grinnellian also has worked with the CDC and the World Health Organization to assist countries around the world to develop their disease surveillance and reporting systems. Although she’s not here to receive the award in person, please join me in congratulating Carla Talarico ’99 for her 2024 award.

By understanding the complexities of transitioning a controlled substance from a prohibition model to a regulated system, this awardee has opened a new field of law. This alum successfully spearheaded the movement to legalize the use of recreational cannabis in Colorado as a lead drafter and campaign co-director of the state amendment. He then applied this experience to assist with change in other states and countries, advising both governments and activists on this important social justice issue. These successes led to a large-scale rethinking of drug laws and to millions of fewer arrests for cannabis violations. We are pleased to present Brian Vicente ’99 with a 2024 award.

The recipient of the next award has played a critical role in the advancement of all people in the state of Arkansas. Elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2014, this alum sponsored multiple bills that focused on voting integrity and equality, criminal reform, and concerns of systemic and traditional racism embedded in the symbols of Arkansas state institutions. During his legislative tenure, he served as house minority leader and vice chair of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus. From 2019 to 2022, our honoree managed the daily operations of the city of Little Rock mayor’s office as its chief of staff. We are delighted to present Charles Blake ’05 with the 2024 Grinnell College award.

This alum’s tireless commitment and outstanding contributions in the field of pediatric and adolescent psychology have had a profound and lasting impact on the lives of countless children. An associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Kentucky and the school behavioral health director, this awardee directs school-based mental health services, conducts neurodevelopmental assessments, and builds systems for suicide screening and intervention. Her most recent undertaking is developing a pediatric abusive head trauma clinic that will serve at-risk children from the time of their injury to adulthood. This Grinnellian also is developing online resources for teachers and coaches for responding to child and adolescent mental health crises. We are thrilled to honor Alissa Briggs ’05 with the 2024 award.

The final honoree today is a Pioneer Award recipient. This is a distinctive alumni award, which recognizes noteworthy alumni who have graduated from Grinnell College within the past 10 years. Honorees offer inspiration as models for their demonstrated commitment to the values and mission of Grinnell in such a short time. This award recipient is dedicated to pursuing high-impact biomedical research while also promoting social change, increasing diversity, and creating inclusive environments. As a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Researcher in structural biology at the Scripps Research Institute, this alum is using a technique called cryo-electron microscopy to resolve some of the world’s most mysterious machines in the hopes of elucidating their role in aging and disease. She also builds and designs programs aimed at fostering a sense of belonging and mentorship for historically marginalized groups for which she received a 2023 Joseph F. Wall Alumni Service Award. Please join me in congratulating Lisa Eshun-Wilson ’14.

Congratulations to all our 2024 alumni award recipients!

Scott Shepherd ’82:

Yeah, I’m good. Okay. Good afternoon. I’m Scott Shepherd. You’re going to be glad to know that my name is next to closing comments. I am the incoming president of Alumni Council and you — I knew we’d get one wooer. You may be asking yourself, what does Alumni Council do? And Alumni Council’s a group of 25 alums who work closely with the Development and Alumni Relations team to increase alumni involvement with the College. Our focus is on those activities that lead to positive student outcomes. Outcomes like graduating and getting a job and on improving the experience on campus for those students. We promote alumni involvement with philanthropy, internships, externships, mentoring relationships, and work to create alumni connections. We do some really good things and feel a calling to give back to the College. [child yell] I knew, he’s an early wooer. That’s what that is. I’ve just ... Tell you a little story. In 1978, after a long drive from New Jersey, I moved into Loose Hall my first year. It was a really good first-year dorm. Going into the second year, I had the lowest, unluckiest number ever in room draw. My number was so low, I was in Norris. Okay, now I’ve had some discussions with folks who try to say, oh, Norris wasn’t that bad. I have two words for you, “gang shower.” But it was in Norris while working at new student days that I fell in love. Laura, my partner, was hall president, and I was hall coordinator. We hit it off and have been together for the last 45 years.

We also planned some pretty damn good parties. It turned out to be a very lucky room draw. Laura and I have one daughter, Hannah. When Hannah started to look at colleges, Grinnell was definitely a dark horse because Grinnell was our place; it wasn’t hers. And we realized it was one of those times. The more we pushed, the less she was going to want to go here. Then one Sunday morning after days of pondering on her acceptance letters, she bounded down the stairs and happily announced, “I think Grinnell is the place for me.” We all did a happy dance. I stole that from Fresh Prince, but we shed a few tears, as I am now, and we were extremely happy. I’ve heard love defined as the preoccupying and strong desire for further connection. The powerful bonds people hold with a select few and the intimacy that grows between them, the commitments to loyalty and faithfulness. I love Grinnell. I want to further my connections to Grinnell. I will forever be tied to Grinnell. Why am I ...? Sorry. And I am committed to Grinnell. I wasn’t planning on doing this. I would do almost anything for Grinnell, but why do I love Grinnell? I love Grinnell for what Grinnell stands for, for almost 200 years, making the world a better place through action, compassion, and thoughtfulness. Yes, there is some value to overthinking.

I love the kinds of people that those ideals attract. It attracts the critical thinkers, the doers, the obnoxious, the defender of others, the overthinkers, the people who say what everyone else is thinking but are afraid to say. The people who have the courage to say what no one else is thinking. The curious, the kindhearted, the opinionated, and the very opinionated, the passionate, and the dreamers. And I’m glad it attracted a wide-eyed kid from Oklahoma who was the first of her family to go to college and a skinny, skinny, believe it or not, scared, idealistic kid from the suburbs of New Jersey. As we adjourn from this Alumni Assembly, please join us at the All-Reunion Dinner, which will be held following this assembly on Eighth Avenue in front of the Rosenfeld Center. Also, check the Reunion Weekend schedule for the time and location of tonight’s events. Whether you dance the night away in Harris Center, meet up at the art gallery reception, listen to the Too Many Strings Band in Bob’s, or join your class for a special social, I hope you all enjoy the last night of our Reunion Weekend.

Thank you for coming to Reunion. Thank you for being part of celebrating each other and this community. I encourage you to further your connection to Grinnell. Learn about the internships and externship opportunities. Be a mentor, make a donation, send a care package. Show your love for Grinnell. There are so many ways you can positively impact the experience of the current students, and in the end, that’s what this is all about. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Soak it all in. You are among your people. Thank you for coming.