From Texas and California to China and India, incoming GW students are getting a special send-off before they hit campus this fall. GW’s Office of Alumni Relations has organized more than 30 GW Summer Send-Offs across the globe for new students to welcome them and their families into the GW community.
Associate Director of Student and Young Alumni Programs Molly Kastendieck, M.Ed.’08, said the annual send-offs hosted by alumni and parents offer students and their parents the opportunity to connect with alumni and their peers.
“The send-offs are typically casual receptions and are meant to give families a chance to chat with each other and help build the GW community in their region,” said Ms. Kastendieck.
Send-off locations are selected depending on the concentration of GW students coming from those areas; some of this year’s selections include Boston, Long Island, San Francisco, Beijing and Shanghai. Ms. Kastendieck said more than 600 people will participate in this summer’s send-offs.
In late July, local incoming students attended a reception hosted by Paula Segal, B.A. ’69, M.A. ’74, and Debbie Wheeler, B.A. ’84, at Ms. Segal’s house in Potomac, Md. Ms. Segal, a member of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development’s alumni board and a former high school teacher, said hosting a summer send-off was a natural fit for her since she “loves interacting with young people.”
“The event was a lot of fun,” she said. “New students got to meet each other before classes begin and parents connected with other parents. Staff and current students attended and made the new students feel really comfortable and welcomed.”
Director of Athletics and Recreation Patrick Nero attended send-offs in Boston and New York to meet GW’s newest students and their families as well as alumni.
“During their four years at GW, incoming students, parents and alumni are going to interact with our department through the Lerner Health and Wellness Center, intramural sports, club sports and intercollegiate athletics,” he said. “It is important that we build these relationships early on."
Director of International Alumni Relations Taylor Bodrie, M.A. ’10, M.B.A. ’10, said China, South Korea and India were a natural fit for summer send-offs because the countries have significant GW alumni populations as well as the largest numbers of incoming students for fall 2011. More than 300 people attended the international send-offs this summer, which included events in Paris, Taiwan, London, Istanbul and Hong Kong.
GW faculty and staff also attended several of the international send-offs. Peg Barratt, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, traveled to Shanghai and Beijing; Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies Deepa Ollapally and Associate Professor of English Kavita Daiya to Mumbai, India; and Young-Key Kim-Renaud, chair of GW’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, to Seoul.
“We could not have hosted these send-offs without the support of our international alumni leaders,” said Ms. Bodrie. “We have a history of hosting successful summer send-offs and this year we continued this great tradition.”