Back to School: Transylvania Alumni Enjoy Classes, Tours and Celebrations
Transylvania alumni gathered for a fun weekend on campus and in the community this past April. The annual Alumni Weekend included new events like May term lectures and horse farm tours, along with favorites like class reunions and a day at Keeneland.
Alumni headed back to class — maybe for the first time in decades — to kick things off Friday morning with offerings like Fido on the Couch with psychology professor Ellen Furlong ’03 (they may have taken philosophy with her father, Jack). Other classes included Game Design with computer science professor Kenny Moorman ’90 and Measuring the Universe with physics professor Jamie Day.
“One thing we hear over and over from alumni is how much they enjoyed forming relationships with professors and how fun May term was,” said Natasa Pajic Mongiardo ’96. “This connects them back to those great memories.”
Alumni Weekend also gave Pioneers a chance to celebrate the careers of retiring professors Veronica Dean-Thacker and Ben Hawkins at a Saturday Reunion Reception in the Campus Center.
Other highlights included a Celebration Convocation recognizing alumni for their achievements and service, visits to thoroughbred farms, a tour of James E. Pepper Distillery, Coffeehouse with Faculty Authors, Young Alumni Happy Hour, and a fraternity and sorority open house.
Those who arrived early could check out a Thursday night TOPs (Transy’s Outstanding Pioneers) Alumni Panel in Carrick Theater. Sponsored by the Center for Academic and Professional Enrichment, the event included Mariju Bofill ’99, a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State; Les Johnson ’84, a NASA space propulsion technologist and author; Blake Judd ’04, a director, producer and writer; and Elizabeth Harvey Matson ’94, an FBI intelligence analyst.
