Tag Archives: Photographs

July 26, 2012 · 8:35 pm

Penn Serves LA

Author:  Kiera Reilly, C’93  (@KieraReilly)

Penn Serves LA’s first event at the Turning Point Shelter in Santa Monica, CA.

On Saturday June 9, Penn Serves LA hosted its first successful volunteer event. More than 20 Penn alumni and friends were on hand to serve dinner with dignity to the 55 residents of Turning Point Shelter in Santa Monica. Volunteers brought chicken, salad, dessert, decorations and more to prepare this memorable meal.

“We are thrilled that first event exceeded our expectations of interest from Los Angeles Penn alumni and their families,” shares Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16, a founding member of the Penn Serves LA Committee. Jane, along with Denise Winner, W’83, Leanne Huebner, W’90, Aileen Level, C’99, GSEd’00, and others, have been putting their various nonprofit experiences and connections together to get Penn Serves LA together and running.

Penn alumni helping in the kitchen.

Making lunches for the Turning Point residents.

In these difficult economic times, many succumb to homelessness due to job loss and these shelters are key to getting them back on their feet. According the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center, an estimated 254,000 men, women and children experience homelessness in Los Angeles County during some part of the year and approximately 82,000 people are homeless on any given night. Interestingly, 32% of LA’s homeless have bachelors’ degrees (compared to 45% of the overall population) and 41% have worked in the previous year.

PennClubLA’s Snehit Neenakri, GEN’09, and Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’ 14, PAR’16.

The Penn Serves LA goal is to volunteer our services as Penn alumni, parents and family to contribute to needy nonprofits in our community. Penn Serves LA is regularly scheduling service events whereby Quakers can proudly work together to service the Los Angeles community.   We are working in partnership with PennClubLA, Wharton Club of Southern California, and the Southern California Regional Advisory Board.

Serving food from the kitchen.

The next Penn Serves LA event is September 22 The group will serve lunch at The Midnight Mission. More details will be available soon, and the event will be promoted via emails and through the local Penn and Wharton clubs.

The Penn Serves LA committee is seeking more LA-based alumni, parents and students to support our initiative. If you have interest in learning more, or in joining us on September 22, please contact pennserves@gmail.com.

All photos (c) Kiera Reilly.

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Alumni Programming, Clubs, Events, GAN, Kiera R., Penn Clubs, Penn Serves LA, Photos, Volunteering, West Coast Regional Office

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July 13, 2012 · 6:45 pm

Hurrah, Hurrah, A-Antarctica

Author: Nicole C. Maloy, W’95

As Philadelphia finds itself at the beginning of yet another heat wave, and as much of the nation has experienced record heat this summer, I thought I’d take you on a little trip with me through time and space to someplace just a bit cooler. In February 2008, I was fortunate enough to host a Penn Alumni Travel trip to Antarctica. Coolest moment (no pun intended, but it stays): being out on our Zodiac raft when three humpback whales decided to hang out with us. I casually asked the Naturalist driving us if there was any history of whales overturning a Zodiac raft. He shrugged. I tightened my life vest. A few of my video clips of those whales are below. I will never forget this trip, and my temperature has dropped a few degrees just looking at these photos again. May they have the same effect on you.

I love that the coats they gave us match our flag! If they’d been certain other colors, I think some alumni might have braved the cold for this photo.

One of my favorite shots of the trip. This Gentoo penguin chick walked up, stopped and looked at me before moving on.

Molting Adelie penguin chick teaches me a new dance.

This penguin chick walked right up to this guy and stopped. I tried to tell him, but he was too focused on taking photos of the penguins in front of him to hear me. So I started taking photos. Then his wife, approaching with that group on the left, starts pointing down at his feet. Then he looked down…

Oh, hello.

Three humpback whales befriend our raft. The woman sitting next to me is really, really excited about it.

Humpback whales are identified by the patterns on the underside of their tails. One of the Naturalists asked for this video because she didn’t think they’d seen this one before. And here I was thinking it was cool enough just to see it dive!

The ice. I still can’t believe I saw this with my own eyes.

Bottom of the world, Ma!

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February 24, 2012 · 3:24 pm

Snow at Penn

Author: Kiera Reilly, C’93

I work for Penn, but I am based in our western regional office in Los Angeles. For the past few years, I’ve returned to campus in February for the Penn Alumni board and Global Alumni Network retreats. Last year, I flew in from Seattle after a Penn event there the night before, and our flight was delayed due to snow in Philadelphia. My colleagues flying with me were not thrilled, nor was everyone back at Penn, as about a week or so prior there was a huge snowstorm. Snow was still around making everyone miserable, and no one wanted any more.

But for me, I couldn’t have been happier. I love the winter and snow. I was born in New Jersey but moved to Texas when I was 12. When I decided to attend Penn for college, I looked forward to beautiful snow falling on the campus. Sadly, during my four years on campus, we barely had any snowfall. My senior year, as everyone was returning from Spring Break, we finally got some serious snow – enough to cancel flights and delay everyone’s return to campus.

So, when I was on campus two weekends ago, I was thrilled to be in a session with our Global Alumni Network volunteers in Huntsman Hall and see snow falling outside. It wasn’t sticking to the ground though, but it made me smile. Later that night, as I exited the Palestra after watching the Men’s Basketball team eke out a victory over Dartmouth, it was snowing again. I was with Melissa Wu, C’98, of PennClubLA,  and Beth Topor, W’80, of the Penn Club of Northern California. How fitting that three California Penn grads walked out to windy snow…and then desperately tried to find an available cab.

I didn’t get any pictures of that snow, since it was night, but I share with you below some photos from March 2009 that I took. Everything is so pretty when covered with snow!

Locust Walk in front of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

College Green (not looking so green...)

 

Furness Fine Arts Library

 

Ben Franklin Statue in front of College Hall

 

Shops on Sansom Street, including the now closed Black Cat

 

Birds chirping near the food trucks behind Meyerson Hall

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Campus Life, GAN, Kiera R., Penn Clubs, Philadelphia, Photos

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July 13, 2011 · 7:14 pm

Big Dade on Campus (BDOC)

Author: Emily Siegel

Each year high school students flood the campus in the summer months to determine if Penn might be a good college fit for them.  As a top-notch research university it comes as no surprise the campus receives thousands of visitors each year, but it appears that Penn’s popularity knows no boundaries.  In a first for the University, Penn has officially garnered interest from the canine persuasion as well!

In a recent visit, Daedelus (“Dade” for short) dropped in to learn more about this great place.  Not wanting to discriminate based on fur; we gave him the royal treatment, showing him all that Penn has to offer!

So, we took him to where it all started – Ben Franklin.  He seemed quite impressed.

Dade and Ben are Friends

And any visit to Penn isn’t complete without a stroll down Locust Walk.

The sun-dappled Locust Walk

He loved all of the artwork on campus, especially the LOVE Statue and Peace Sign.

Totally Peaceful

In LOVE

He was particularly impressed by the architecture of the campus buildings, noting the Castle as one of his favorites.

The Castle and Dade


He marveled when told about Penn’s impressive alumni community.  He really thought it was cool that Charles Addams, the creator of The Addams Family, went to Penn too.   Although he admits he was a little hesitant about being walked by Morticia.

Addams Family

Being Walked by One of the Hands on The Gates


After all that walking, he needed a break.

Resting

After the tour, he had a chance to sit down with Steve  from PAARC and have all of his questions answered.

Dade and Steve Discuss Dade's Future at Penn

We think it’s fair to say he seemed to really appreciate the special attention he was given during his visit. And we loved having him!

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June 29, 2011 · 5:55 pm

Remember Penn

The University Archives Digital Image Collection, available through the Penn library system, allows you to pull up photos from yesteryear, including ones from alumni events. I love old photos–I love the clothes and the hair styles and wondering what happened to the people in the pictures.  I love that you can also search for particular photos. Here’s  one what a search for  “homecoming” yielded for me (btw, save the date for this year’s Homecoming Weekend featuring arts and culture,  November 4-6, 2011. Also, we again face the Princeton Tigers this Homecoming Weekend).

This football guide book was for the game on October 22, 1966.

Artist: Louise Day, October 22, 1966

And here’s the game book from November 2, 1957:

Artist: Robert Foster

Finally, one from November 15, 1952.

This photo was taken a Alumni Day, 1952. I imagine that one of the woman is saying to the other, “Oh, no, Margie, this t-shirt certainly won’t be too small on you.” If you can think of a better caption, please send it along.

Photographer: Mike Pearlman, 1952

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March 24, 2011 · 2:31 pm

A Room with a View (of Locust Walk)

One of the best things about working for Alumni Relations at Penn is our location. Sweeten Alumni House, located at 3533 Locust Walk, sits literally at the heart of campus.  Though at times it may be distracting, we can literally see and hear just about everything that happens on Locust Walk – from the Penn Band announcing the Spring Fling concert artist with their rendition of “The Club Can’t Even Handle Me” by Flo Rider (look it up; I know I had to) to Penn students enjoying the first day of spring on a warm, sunny day on College Green.

Among all of this, it the less familiar sights and sounds that I find most fascinating.  For example, the pledges from Theos and Tabard societies fully camped out with tarps, tents and sleeping bags on College Green; the student dressed like Waldo (as in Where’s Waldo) – complete with red and white striped shirt and hat and round black glasses – hiding in the bushes outside our building; or the 24 hour stationary bike marathon for charity hosted each spring by our fraternity neighbors, complete with a pink bunny mascot and The Best of Journey on repeat.

As bizarre and entertaining as these sights and sounds may be, to me they also represent what is so fantastic about Penn.  This campus literally pulses with energy, creativity, and excitement every minute of the day, every day of the year.  And that energy is contagious – its part of what makes me excited to come to work every day and to be a part of this community.

If you don’t believe, just check out the view from my office.

Lisa V., C’02

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