Lifelong Learning for All of Us

By ED GOLDSTEIN '79
National Alumni Council President

I took Professors George Drake and Wilbur Wright's "Lifelong Learning and the Liberal Arts" course my last block at Colorado College. Their final charge to the class was simple -- engage in a lifetime of extraordinary learning experiences, especially during our leisure time.

Back then, I don't think anybody anticipated the potential of CC alumni activities to contribute to that lifelong learning process. Yet shortly after we graduated, the school made an important strategic commitment to enhance alumni programs, a commitment that is bearing fruit today.

Alumni of all ages have benefited from these programs. In recent years, I have joined other graduates on a tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum with Professor Dennis Showalter; watched hawks take flight and discuss Southwestern history and literature at the Baca campus with Professors Dick Beidelman, Anne Hyde and Joe Gordon; and gone whale-watching alongside astronaut-oceanographer and V-12 program veteran Scott Carpenter '47. With other alumni, I have helped recruit new students, pitched in on "CC Cares Day" community service projects, and cheered on the women's soccer and men's ice hockey teams.

These opportunities are not created in a vacuum. Diane Brown Benninghoff '68 and the competent staff at Tutt House are the forces behind CC's innovative Alumni and Parents Program. Among the host of popular programs they arrange are the professorial visits to metro groups, the alumni community service effort, and the Bischof Award for alumni research projects.

Tutt House staff also support the National Alumni Council, the governing body of the alumni association. The talented and energetic alumni, who serve on the NAC, plan CC-related events in their area, assist in student recruitment, provide career help for current students and graduates, bolster school fund-raising efforts and annually recognize the contributions and achievements of distinguished alumni and college staff.

The past decade has seen an explosive growth in the scope and quality of CC alumni programs. Under the leadership of my NAC predecessors -- Malcom Persen '76, Joan Dobrowolski Urbaniak '73, Ron Rubin '73, Laurie Marvin '80 and Greg Smith '69 -- three Bischof Alumni Scholar Awards have been presented and CC Cares Day, the newest metro event, has been introduced. With thanks again to the alumni office staff, we're now online, connecting with alumni through our Web site and the Cybertiger e-newsletter. We've also set our sights on alumni Annual Fund participation, hoping to exceed the 65 percent achieved in 1993 (currently we're at about 42 percent).

What does the future hold? During my term, and that of President-elect Brad Friedman '82, I would like to see alumni metro groups take root outside the U.S., in cities such as Calgary, London, Paris, and Tokyo, where sizable numbers of alumni now reside. Internationalizing the activities of the alumni body will certainly complement President Kathryn Mohrman's strategic emphasis on enhancing the school's international focus.

Our alumni body now exceeds 23,000, and the National Alumni Council hopes to reach as many of you as possible in the next few years with continued meaningful opportunities to expand upon our mutual learning experience at the foot of Pikes Peak.

NATIONAL ALUMNI COUNCIL

Richard D. Benoit '75
Penelope Savalas Boardman '83
Lora Louise Began Broady '83
Jim Burness '90
Colleen Currie '92
Nina DeConcini '85
Anne Doty '82
Momilani Ching Dufault '72
Todd Dye '91
Bruce Edwards '76
Becky Sisk Foerschler '80
Martha K. Freeman '71
Bradley Friedman '82
Ed Goldstein '79
Ken Hartwell '61
Randy Holmes '92
Kristie A. Kauerz '91
Thea Keamy '86
Barbara Keener '67
Larry A. Lutz '79
Tom Newman '69
Dorothy Pacheco Nichols'87
Velva Price '83
Janet Fry Rogers '62
Henry Shires '82
Cynthia Von Riesen Skeen '70
Ann Morrison Smith '73

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