Summer Send-Off
Freshmen Welcomed into MIT Family
Members of the Class of 2009 and their parents, current students, and alumni enjoy a pool-side reception hosted by Parent Connectors Gail and Bob Walker P'07 from Hillsborough, California.
Going away to college for the first time can be a scary transition, but thanks to Alumni Association volunteers, the Class of 2009 left for school already knowing some classmates as well as current students and alumni. Regional alumni clubs, Parent Connectors (parent volunteers), and Educational Counselors in 28 states plus France, Hong Kong, Lebanon, and Singapore hosted 56 summer gatherings for hundreds of incoming freshmen and their parents.
"The summer send-off is a great chance for freshmen to meet some of the local alums in the area, whether for tips on going premed or for making that personal connection that may lead to a future local summer internship," says Howard Rhee '97, president of the Club of Research Triangle Park. "Also, at our summer send-off we saw the freshmen meeting the upperclassmen and making good connections."
Bob Walker P'07 addresses the crowd at the summer send-off event.
Even upperclassmen who couldn't attend a local send-off were eager to make new friends. "If anyone has an interest in electromagnetic fields, give them my number!" one current student told Mary Motto '93, president of the Club of Long Island, which hosted its second annual send-off this year, a meet-and-greet at a local restaurant followed by a Long Island Ducks baseball game.
The events proved beneficial to parents of freshmen too, who discover a support system. "They learn there is an alumni network and parents actually belong to that," Motto says. "It provides parents with continuing contact to MIT."
As for alumni, the send-off events reinvigorate some and offer others a good reason to attend a club event. "Participating in the summer send-off feels like we're somehow contributing to kicking off the MIT school year, even though we're hundreds of miles away," says Rhee, whose club had a pizza party. "Talking with the incoming students brought back the excitement and nervousness I remember from going to MIT as a freshman. It's fun to know that these young adults are about to embark on the unique and eye-opening journey that is the MIT undergraduate experience."
By Amy Marcott
Published September 13, 2005
