A Note From the Director: Interacting with Alumni
We just returned from a fantastic meeting with alumni in Kansas City. Anna Pressler and I, and a couple of Raikes School undergraduates, drove to Kansas City for a combined recruitment and alumni event. There, we held a reception with Matthew Beermann (cohort 1999), Meghan (Lyons) Calabro (cohort 2001), Michael Draftz (cohort 2011), Nate Henderson (cohort 2004), Robert Sugrue (cohort 2006), and Jesse Whidden (cohort 2000). We also invited prospective students from the Kansas City area, about 10 high school juniors, along with two seniors who have already been admitted to the Raikes School as part of cohort 2018, and their families. It was a great opportunity to showcase our Raikes School community, allowing alumni to share their stories with prospective and current students. The alumni in attendance then enjoyed dinner, spending more time catching up and hearing some of my thoughts about possible future directions for the school. I had a great time connecting with the alumni and hearing their good ideas. This is an event we'll likely repeat next year.
A couple of weeks earlier Anna, Mark Antonson (cohort 2002, and our new Design Studio Director), and I traveled to San Francisco to host a reception and meet with our San Francisco alumni: Cody Ebberson (cohort 2000), Mahmoud Hashemi (cohort 2005), Reshma Khilnani (Raikes School Advisory Board member), Cole Malmberg (cohort 2007), Kiel Olson (cohort 2005), Ben Plowman (cohort 2005), and Kyle Powers (cohort 2007). We enjoyed seeing some familiar faces from our fall 2017 trip to San Francisco, having some great Indian food (The Oven is good, but just not the same quality as what we had in San Francisco), hearing about what was going on in their lives, and getting their thoughts about the Raikes School.
We are traveling a fair bit and appreciate catching up with alumni when the opportunity arises. We'll be in Seattle March 20 and might also arrange a visit to Fargo, ND later this spring. We'd also love to have you stop by the Raikes School when you are in Lincoln. Save the date for Homecoming weekend September 28-29 this fall, we'll certainly host an event for those of you who will be in town, with special recognition for cohorts 2004 and 2009 who will celebrate their 10 and 5-year anniversaries of their Raikes School graduation.
We'd also love to get you more involved with the Raikes School. Some of our alumni helped out with this year's interview days, interviewing prospective students for the 2018 cohort. Other alumni are volunteering to mentor current and incoming Raikes School students. If you might be interested in helping us with either of these activities, or in any other way, please send Anna an e-mail (anna.pressler@unl.edu). We look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible and hope to see you out on the road or in Lincoln soon!