Author: Lynn Carroll, C’93
Spring in the urban jungle…
Category Archives: Alumni Perspective
Penn Alumni Haiku Reflections
by Nicole C. Maloy, W’95
I was inspired to write a few Penn-related haiku for today’s blog post, and so I’ve done. Then I thought I’d write a snappy intro. I was all ready to declare today Haiku Day. Why? Because it’s April 13, and 4+13=17, the number of syllables in a standard, 5-7-5 haiku. But then I thought I should look that up to be sure there isn’t already another Haiku Day. Guess what? It’s on April 17 (go figure – it works, but I like mine better). More importantly, April happens to be National Poetry Month.
Seven syllables:
"National Poetry Month."
Coincidence? Naaah.
It turns out that today is a good day for haiku. That said, ANY day is a good day for haiku. As several of the Penn and Philadelphia stories closest to my heart have appeared right here in this blog, I hearken back to some of those topics below. It’s like my own little TV series clip show, but with blog posts.
In honor of the national festivities, I hope you will be inspired to write a haiku of your own, about anything. Then share it with someone. ‘Tis the season. Don’t be shy. If you choose to write one on some element of your Penn experience, feel free to share it right here in the comments section. Onward!
Early Decision
Applied to one school.
Thankfully, I did get in.
Celebration time!
Varsity Women’s Track & Field
Upon reflection,
I sure spent a lot of time
jumping over stuff.
Du Bois College House
Countless memories.
Living. Laughing. Loving my
home away from home.
Influential Teachers
American Lit
will nevermore be the same.
Thank you, Mr. King.
The Inspiration (Penn R&B a capella group)
Harmonization.
Family. Both part and whole,
bigger than myself.
Semester in Lyon, France
“Parlez vous français?”
“Alors, beaucoup plus qu’avant.
Merci, Penn abroad!”
Philly!
Philadelphia:
something old and something new;
always more to see.
Bonus Haiku: Cheesesteaks
No more Billybobs 😦
At least I have Jim’s on South
and, of course, Abner’s.
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Memories of Penn, Nicole M., Uncategorized
Chalk It Up
Author: Drew Tye Asia, C’09
As I turned the corner at 36th street and made my way down Locust Walk to Sweeten this brisk April morning, I was met by a smattering of brightly colored messages scrawled in bold strokes on the bricks. Squinting my eyes in a somewhat valiant attempt to translate the quasi-hieroglyphic text, my initially serious must-get-to-work expression immediately transformed into a cheek-pinching nostalgic grin.
The Friars were here.
It is amazing how working on this campus – the one that I fall in love with over and over again every single day – has the ability to stir up such an incredible assortment of memories from my time as a student. Every day on Locust Walk, I am reminded of a special snippet – eating lunch on College Green with a friend, lying downstairs near the massive windows of Rosengarten writing poetry on a rainy winter afternoon, burying my head in an outline as I walked to my Geology final in Meyerson B1. But today, I was fixated on a time when I took to the night with beach buckets of Crayola products and droves of dear friends to participate in one of the most coveted of Friarly traditions: Chalk the Walk.
Now, as someone who loves to create [whether it be through written or visual illustration], I wanted to treat Locust Walk like my over-sized public canvas and hoped that I could harness the brilliance of street artists who make – oh, you know – a three-dimensional stage 2 rapid – look as easy as tic-tac-toe on a sidewalk.
Well, as it turns out, I just wasn’t destined for the intricacies of water sports. Or their realistic imitations, as it were. But I guess everyone has their own strengths, right? […right?]
Alas, I scoured my brain for any kind of inspiration. Any small suggestion of an idea that could consume me and my somewhat youthful drawing implements for the majority of the evening.
And then I looked up from my intense brainstorming. And, as though it were aglow with the glorious golden light of revelation [or a spotlight], there it was.
Call it a less-than-subtle inspiration, but it was EXACTLY what I needed. So ,I cocked my head to the side, closed one eye, put my thumb up to the statue [isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you measure things from a distance? Not so much? Okay, great…] and sat down on the Walk to git ‘er done–as they say.
And well – after about 40 or so minutes, assistance from an architecture major [see those faint vertical lines on the edges?] and a liiiiitle hand sanitizer to “erase” my mistakes, my masterpiece was complete [random blue “S” included]. It was no stage-2 rapid, and no one was riding its crested currents atop an inflatable raft with a crocodile lurking nearby.But, despite that inconvenient truth, my chalk-tastic attempt truly expressed my adoration for Friars Senior Society – the real reason I was out there in the first place.
And I can confidently give that notion a double thumbs up [see photo above!].
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Clubs, Drew A., Events
An Australian Weekend
Author: Lex Ruby Howe, C’07, GED’13
What do Australians do, one wonders, when they’re surrounded by sea and other awesome Australians at all time? Well this one, on weekends, is rediscovering the beauty of a slower pace, an access to experiences not overrun by the enormity of an urban metropolis, and the unique enjoyment of living in a Commonwealth nation still filled with vestiges of the long reach of the British monarchy.
The last weekends were filled with examples of all such things.
Canberra benefits from a “Sunday is a shopping day” mentality, with residents exploring the on-going “pop-up” markets that grace our streets. One of the highlights is the Old Bus Depot Markets, which, as the name suggests, lives in the Old Bus Depot on the foreshores of one of Canberra’s oldest neighbourhoods, Kingston and pops up each Sunday for one day only. It features the best of the best of chocolates, dips, breads, farmer’s stands, antiques, and artistic novelties known to Canberra. Oh, and if you need one of those lovely best-friendship woven bands, this is the place for you! The Depot has quickly become my Sunday habit.
Ah, but the fun doesn’t end there. My grandparents live in the Blue Mountains, a rural oasis to many Sydney-siders who need an escape from their urban peers. The mountains are peppered with small towns filled with antique stores, places for traditional English afternoon tea, and apple orchards that feed Australia. The fresh air must have gone to my head during my visit to the mountains two weeks ago, as I did something I’d never done before – I woke up expressly to see the sunrise. I watched as it transitioned from a beautiful auburn, to gold, to vibrant yellow, dancing across the dewy grass beneath my feet.
After that sunrise that weekend, I made my way back down the mountains for a quick stop at the Royal Windsor Polo Club. The Club hosted the International Test Series between South Africa and Australia, and after learning the rules on the fly, I enjoyed watching Australia trounce our Commonwealth peers 9-4. I must admit, the game was far less enjoyable than the people-watching opportunities provided by the strutting of Sydney’s young, bold, and beautiful.
Speaking of Sydney, Canberra’s proximity to Australia’s darling city provides ample opportunities for quick weekends away. Sydney offers the homesick among us with a chance to taste a bit of Americana. Shopping at stores that *ahem* may not exist in Canberra (Zara), heading to comedy shows (thank you Tom Green), and delighting taste buds with specialty Ramen shops tucked in the nooks and crannies of a vibrant Chinatown are just a few of the perks of a weekend in Sydney. I plan on exploring them again and again over weekends to come.
It is a hodge-podge, but this is Australian life.
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Lex. H.
Calling all members of the classes of 1973 to 2011 for the Alumni Weekend Parade
Author: Casey Ryan, C’93
In just over a month, Alumni Weekend will be upon us. The campus will be alive with energy as our seniors and soon to be graduates greet family members, loved ones, and friends to campus to commemorate their achievements. Of course, many of our alumni will return to Penn to celebrate their reunions whether it is 5 years or 75 years since they graduated.
Can’t you feel the excitement?
Penn’s staff are definitely excited for your return! However, it is an enormous undertaking: setting up tents all over campus, coordinating schedules, reconfirming rain plans, and planning every event to be special, memorable, and perfect for our alumni. Each one of us plays multiple roles to ensure that the weekend is filled with educational lessons, thrilling social parties, and family-focused fun.
Hamilton Village is all Red and Blue
One of my roles as a cog in the well-oiled Alumni Weekend machine is to prepare the music for the classes assembling in Hamilton Village (a.k.a. Superblock) during the 11:45 AM Parade Line-Up. I have no delusions of grandeur. I’m just a fellow alumnus, working for Penn, who gets songs on an iPod and hits shuffle. This combination of music, people catching up with old friends and parade anticipation makes for one celebratory atmosphere. However, Classes of 1973 – 2011, I’d like to enlist your help to make it better! While I’ll be setting up the song list with current hits, I wanted to ask for your suggestions.
Getting ready for the parade
When you were graduating, what were you playing to get you excited and energized? I was listening to a mix tape (long since lost in a move, I think) that included “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan, TLC’s “Creep,” and Madonna’s “Human Nature” as I donned my gown, lathered myself with sunscreen, and walked out the Superblock (…err Hamilton Village) by the early morning call time.
Lining up with the 20th reunion banner
But better yet, what were you dancing to at the senior picnic or at the formal? What did you get the jukebox to play at a Senior Screamer? What happy, upbeat, energetic song reminds you of your college years? Let me know, so I can add them to the song list.
Showing their Penn pride
Tweet me and Penn Alumni your song suggestions using the following format: “Song” by Artist @IrishWombat @PennAlumni #ParadeMusic #PennAW #PennYYYY. To recap: send the song and the artist, the hashtags: #ParadeMusic and #PennAW (so we can follow the list), as well as #Penn + your four digit year, so alumni can search the music requested by their fellow classmates.
Marching to the class picnics
Just as an example, mine would look like this: “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan @IrishWombat @PennAlumni #PennAW #ParadeMusic #Penn1995 (under 140 characters!)
One picture before heading off
I can’t promise you that your song will play, but I will add it to the song list. Keep your fingers crossed when I hit shuffle.
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Alumni Weekend
I Did It
Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, CAS’89
My senior year at Penn, I took one of my best classes ever. It was full figure sculpture. I loved working with clay, and I remember the classes like they were yesterday and not 23 years ago. I remember the instructor saying, “Move around the room, See it from a new angle.” His perspective helped me find the places to work on my sculpture and myself. As a college student, I found his advice brilliant and I still do. I am constantly working on myself and remembering his word. It was his influence, and the influence of many other Penn faculty members that set me on the path I am today. Their encouragement allowed me to take chances in my life that I might not have had the confidence to face otherwise.
For example, I have to say it feels great to walk into the supermarket, pick up a magazine, and find your own photo. I never thought it would happen to me, but this month, I am in the magazine, First for Women. I had a photo shoot with a stylist, hair, and make up team and a duo of incredible photographers. My story is about my near sixty-pound weight loss and my journey into love, self-acceptance, and finding a life partner.
When I was 39, I lost my travel job, moved home, and thought my adventures and opportunities were over. Instead, I found love, a travel partner and a soul mate (my husband), and weight loss while spending a year in South East Asia. Of these things, love has been the best adventure of all.
Believe that your dreams can come true. It happened for me and it can happen to you and Penn helped to make it happen for me!
During the photo shoot.
The final product!
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Lisa Ellen Niver
Hurrah, Hurrah! Zack Rosen at the Final Four!
By Kiera Reilly, C’93 (@KieraReilly)
This weekend, as Louisville and Kentucky, Ohio State and Kansas battle it out in the NCAA Final Four Men’s Basketball Championships in New Orleans, Penn Athletics teams will be playing Women’s Lacrosse, Softball, Women’s Tennis, Baseball, Men’s Lacrosse, Men’s Lightweight Rowing, Men’s Tennis, Women’s Golf and Men’s Golf. But Penn will be represented at the Final Four.
How? By virtue of Men’s Basketball senior guard and team captain Zack Rosen, who is one of ten finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award, “is presented each year to the outstanding senior NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year across ten different sports. The acronym “CLASS” stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®.”
Each of the ten finalists is profiled on the award website, and you can read about why Zack was nominated here: http://www.seniorclassaward.com/athletes/zack_rosen/.
Just this week, Zack wrote an editorial published in The Daily Pennsylvanian, thanking the students for supporting the team this year. As you can see in the comments below his piece, the fans write to thank him for bringing excitement back to Penn basketball. I for one, am a huge Penn Basketball fan, and was thrilled when the team visited southern California this year (read my earlier post about the fans that came to cheer for the Quakers). When I was on campus in February, I attended the Penn-Harvard and Penn-Dartmouth games, and it felt like old times in the Palestra – a packed house with Penn alumni and students cheering loudly for our beloved Quakers. Much of that spirit is thanks to Zack Rosen, being the best player on the court and a class act off the court.
The finalists are in New Orleans now, and participated in a service project this morning. Tomorrow, between the two final four games, the winner will be announced. In the meantime, their photos adorn a bus and a hotel in New Orleans. Pretty cool to see a Penn player receive some well-deserved national recognition.
Lowe's Senior CLASS bus in New Orleans.
Installing the Lowe's Senior CLASS photo on the Sheraton in New Orleans.
Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalists on the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans.
Photos from Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award Facebook page.
Congratulations Zack!
Hurrah, Hurrah, Pennsylvania!
More links
A Penn YouTube video highlights Zack.
Penn Athletics article on Zack’s trip to New Orleans.
Unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year: Zack Rosen on Philly.com.
Rosen is named second-team ECAC Division I All-Star, the only Ivy player named.
Capsule review of Penn’s season by PhilaHoops.com
Rosen dives into life with same passion as hoops on CSNPhilly.
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Athletics, Awards, Kiera R., West Coast Regional Office
Penn Alumni in My Travels
Author: Nicole Oddo, C’05
Having been inspired by Monday’s post on travel- here are my last five destinations where I met Penn alumni.
5. Wilmington, Delaware
Probably one of the closest destinations and I went for a work presentation. As I was setting my up my presentation, my contact and I discovered that we were both Penn undergraduates. Small world.
4. New York City, New York
My college roommate and I went to the Brooklyn Art Museum. We have toured many art museums together and she indulges my crazy requests to go to museums all over NYC. I have a quest to go to all the art museums in the country…
3. Phoenix, Arizona
I met my alumni mentor, the chair of the Global Alumni Network Board, to discuss volunteer leadership and the direction of the Penn Club of Philadelphia. All while enjoying tea outside in November.
2. Virginia Beach, Virginia
While I was visiting a friend from Arizona, I saw a Penn alumna who I hadn’t seen in years. I reached out to the Penn alumna when my friend moved there last year because I thought they might have something in common. Fast forward today and they are good friends!
1. Bangor, Maine
One of my Penn roommates got married and I trekked up to central Maine to celebrate her special day. Several Penn alumni made the trip and we were all seated together at the reception. To break the ice, we all shared stories about our days at Penn.
Here’s to finding Penn alumni everywhere!
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Alumni Programming, Nicole O.
yPenn Highball Comes to Philly
Author: Drew Feith-Tye Asia, C’09
Calling all Penn Alumni in Classes 1997 to 2011!
You are cordially invited to yPenn’s first ever HighBall in Philadelphia this Saturday, March 31 from 9 PM to 1 AM. We will be partying at Stotesbury Mansion (1923 Walnut Street). The event is 21+ to enter, and will feature a full open bar, light bites, dancing, and the musical stylings of Penn alumnus and DJ, Akpo Omene! This event shouldn’t be missed, so register HERE right now.
Tickets are $40 online and $45 at the door, so get decked out in your favorite cocktail attire and join your fellow young alumni in the City of Brotherly Love!
HighBall hahy-bawl (n.) – A massive, blow-out party for you and your friends. Here's an example from last year's party in New York.
How AWESOME does this place look?
Filed under Alumni Perspective, Alumni Programming, Events, Philadelphia, y-Penn
Class of 1981 First Annual Community Service Project – The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Author: Leslie B. Posnock, C’81
Our group of dedicated volunteers!
We expected a good time – after all, we were with old friends and family, giving back to the Philadelphia that nurtured and entertained us more than 30 years ago. But, the Class of 1981’s First Annual Community Service project – in partnership with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, wowed us from beginning to end.
Perhaps our first clue was the bright sunshine, when the forecast called for rain. Or the brightly colored trolley we boarded as a group. Every day, Philadelphia residents are amazed by the more than 3,500 dynamic, larger-than-life images that grace the city’s neighborhoods and have earned international acclaim as the largest outdoor art gallery in the world. Now it was our turn to explore this important and beautiful project.
Lots of familiar faces from the Class of 1981 joined us – Dale (Borenstein) Bell and Allan Bell, Debbie (Margulies) Buchwald , Lisa (Higgs) Dutton, Rhea (Schwartz) Finkelstein and Eddie Finkelstein, Caryn Feuer Liss, Jeffrey Lonoff, Leslie Posnock, and Wendy Sardinsky. Other Penn alums included Jon Liss (Class of 1976), Karen (Friedman) Lang (Penn Med 1990), Brittany Bell (Class of 2011), David Fine (Class of 2011), and future grad Brandon Bell (Class of 2014). Old friends, new friends, spouses and children shared soft pretzels and took in the sights.
Our tour took us through neighborhoods blighted by poverty, but brightened and made hopeful by the enormous, intricately detailed murals created by the talented and dedicated people of the Mural Arts Program, along with volunteers and professional artists. Among the highlights of our tour was “Holding Grandmother’s Quilt,” depicting a grandmother and her three grandchildren, which spans two walls in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Mantua. A former empty lot – a haven for drug dealers and junkies – now a community garden – lay between them.
“Common Threads,” a mural located at Broad and Spring Garden Streets, conceived as a celebration of Philadelphia’s youth, astounded us with its sheer size and artistry.
“Shadow of a Church,” located at 22nd and Walnut Street, formerly an empty wall abutting a service station, amazed us with its realistic depiction of a church – no longer there – reflected in the windows of a (nonexistent) brick office building.
We passed murals celebrating history, vocations and organizations. We passed murals depicting sunflowers and celebrities. We passed murals painted by children who had seen too much fear and sadness, but who dared to dream of a better tomorrow. We saw murals which depicted the everyday struggles of the people who live in their neighborhoods. Each mural brought a burst of color and light to the walls it graced.
Mid-tour, we grabbed paintbrushes, joined the Mural Arts Program staff in their studio, learned the innovative process for creating these installations, and had a blast painting a mural called “Finding the Light Within,” which seeks to bring awareness to suicide prevention. The project, slated for completion this summer, will be installed near Penn’s campus at Horizon House (120 South 30th Street). Each of us pledged to attend the opening ceremony.
After a tasty detour at the E. Craig Sweeten Alumni House for snacks and drinks, we headed to the Palestra and cheered our Quakers as they convincingly beat Yale, 68 – 47, in the final home game of the Penn basketball season.
We hope you’ll join us in March of 2013 for our Second Annual Community Service Project. If you would like to help plan our next event, please contact Caryn Feuer Liss, 215-888-9598, carynfl@aol.com, or Leslie Posnock, 732-895-0814, lposnock@schwartzposnock.com.
Frankly Penn 