<nother huge display of generosity, the Weitz family has led the Board of Trustees to reach another monumental fund raising goal this week. While their monetary contributions alone have been astounding, what moves us as students is their commitment to Carleton. They are among the thousands of alums who continuously support our education here. We are an incredibly fortunate student body to have generations of alums who support Carleton and what it represents with generous gifts of time and money.
We’re lucky to have this support system for many reasons. As students we understand that there is pressure to maintain the level excellence established by our predecessors. The alums hold us accountable to work and play as hard as they did when they wandered this campus. We want to keep our high level of excellence in everything we do, because everyone before us has done it so well. It is wonderful to have alums who stay in touch with the campus and are actively helping current Carls.
Alumni support is a pretty solid indicator that the college will continue to be prosperous and successful. The annual financial gifts given by many alums help to bring the highest quality professors, create amazing facilities, and fund other opportunities that are not available at many other schools. Gifts like the contributions from the Weitz family and the Board of Trustees ensure that, despite these difficult financial times, Carleton will still have all of the wonderful benefits that prior students were able to enjoy.
It’s not just the donations that we value as students. Alums visit for numerous events throughout the year and their presence on campus is always welcome. They bring a nostalgic excitement to campus. They come back to represent athletic teams, both varsity and club. This past weekend there were alumni events for four of the ultimate teams, the rugby, and the lacrosse team. The alums come back to reconnect with their friends from college. Yet there’s also the aspect of meeting their successors and sharing advice and knowledge that they learned during their time here. Their memories and stories bring Carleton history to life, and it’s clear that they loved it here just as much as we do. They enjoy seeing us succeed and appreciate knowing that we are trying to maintain the excellence they have established.
In addition to athletics, alums provide a wide range support in other forms. Current Carls often seek advice for jobs and life after Carleton from alums and many students find their first job out of college due to interactions with alums. They also return to campus for my Career Center programs, trying to provide whatever assistance they can to students so that we can be successful.
Carleton isn’t a place we want to escape from, and we will never be able to recreate the wonderful experiences that we have here daily. Many of these moments would not have happened without the support of our alums. From the Weitz family and the Board of Trustees, whose extreme generosity will benefit Carleton for many years, to the alums who help guide us in job searches, to the alums who loose their voice cheering on their Knights, our alums give us everything they can. As students we appreciate everything the alums do to make us succeed. They can never be thanked enough.
– Devin Daugherty and Alex Kinsey