SPRING 2016 NEWSLETTER Contents: 1. Welcome Message from the President, Board of Governors 2. Attend Spring Banquet (4/30) and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch (5/14) 3. Please Donate to the Sphinx Alumni Fund 4. Buy Sphinx Gear from the New “Sphinx Store” 5. Current Sphinx Campus News 6. Sphinx Alumni News 7. Sign Up for the Sphinx Class Alumni Directory 8. Visit Penn Campus as a Distinguished Sphinx Alumnus 9. Mentor a Sphinx Undergraduate 10. Contribute to the New Sphinx Historical Archives Page 11. Help Us Identify Missing Honorary Sphinx Members 12. Join the Sphinx Facebook and LinkedIn Groups 13. Send Us Your News, Comments, and Suggestions 1. Welcome Message from the President, Board of Governors Since our Fall 2015 Newsletter in November 2015, the Sphinx Senior Society, now in its 116th year, has continued to work through its 17 member Board of Governors (BOG) and the 30 members of the Sphinx Class of 2016 to implement our five goals: 1. Strengthen alumni outreach; 2. Support the undergraduate program; 3. Update our online Sphinx Class Alumni Directory as part of our ever improving web site, www.sphinxseniorsociety.com ; 4. Expand the Sphinx Links mentoring program; and 5. Raise $10,000 to support the Society’s activities. In this Spring 2016 Newsletter, you can read about our most recent activities to achieve our goals. These activities include: • Updating our Sphinx Class Alumni Directory, where you can sign up, enter your profile, and contact other members of your Sphinx class or any signed up alumnus; 1 • Matching Sphinx Class of 2016 mentees with Sphinx alumni mentors in various professional fields through our “Sphinx Links” mentoring program, now in its sixth year; • Our continually expanding website, which contains news of current Sphinx events, alumni accomplishments, an updated Class Awards list going back to 1900 and the founding of Sphinx, our new “Sphinx Store” from which you can buy Sphinx gear, and a new Sphinx historical archives page. This archive includes “flashback” photos of the Sphinx Classes of 1966, 1976 and 1991 celebrating their 50th, 40th, and 25th Reunions this coming Alumni Weekend, May 13-16, 2016. It also includes a video Mika Rao, Chief ’96, and Carrie Kitchen-Santiago,’92, made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sphinx in 1999-2000. The video is entitled “Sphinx Senior Society: Celebrating 100 Years.” We showed the video at our annual Spring Banquet on April 25, 2014. Here's a link to it now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MWVf6hWkGk&feature=youtu.be&noredire ct=1 Please read this newsletter and check our website to see how you can get involved this year in the Sphinx Senior Society. For example, you can: • Mentor a Class of 2016 Sphinx member, or a member of the Sphinx Class of 2017 in the “Sphinx Links” mentoring program; • Join already over 200 Sphinx classmates who’ve done so and enter your profile in our new Class Directory and email classmates; • Send us your personal alumni news and memorabilia for the new Sphinx archives page at [email protected] • • Buy Sphinx gear from our new Sphinx Store; • Attend the annual Spring Banquet on April 30, 2016, and/or the annual Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch on May 14, 2016;• • Donate to support these activities. Finally, I want to thank the following members of the Sphinx BOG for their continued excellent help to achieve our goals this year: Gregory Suss, C’75, Vice President; John K. Fiorillo, W’86, Treasurer; Elizbeth Katz Miller, W’87, Secretary; Merrie S. Frankel, C’76, President-Emeritus; Samuel Rappaport, W’15, Pharisee-Emeritus; Alexis Ruby Howe, C’07, WEV’09, WEV’10, GED’12; Samir Malik, C’08. W’08, WG’14; Kiera Reilly, C’93, Sphinx Archivist; Anita Saggurti, C’12, Sphinx Links Mentoring Coordinator; Glen S. Schuster, C’86, Co-Coordinator, Web Site and Class Directory; Franklin Shen, ENG’03, Co-Coordinator, Web Site and Class Directory; and Kevin Vaughan, C’77. Ex Officio: Current Student Officers: Devin Grossman, W’16, Chief; Prashant Ramesh, SEAS’16, Pharisee; and Sydney Schneider, C’16, Scribe. Think Sphinx! Steve Klitzman, C’66, President, Sphinx Senior Society Board of Governors, [email protected] [email protected]. H:301-263-0616; M: 202-277-9509. 2 2. Attend Spring Banquet(4/30) and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch(5/14) April 30, 2016, Spring Banquet: Celebrate and bid farewell to the Sphinx Class of 2016, welcome the Sphinx Class of 2017, and socialize with Fellow Sphinx Alums! • Now that Spring is here the Board of Governors of the Sphinx Senior Society invites all Sphinx alums and guests to the annual Spring Banquet on Saturday, April 30, 2016. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres begin at 6:30 pm at the historic Orpheus Club at 254 S. Van Pelt Street in Center City, Philadelphia. • At the banquet we will officially initiate the Sphinx Class of 2017 and Honorary Sphinx member Dr. J. Larry Jameson. Dr. Jameson has served since 2011 as the Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and the 36th Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine. For his distinguished bio click here: http://alumni.med.upenn.edu/jljbio.php J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph. D. and 2016 Honorary Sphinx Inductee • On Friday, April 22, 2016, Dr. Vincent Price, Provost, Penn’s chief academic officer since 2009, invited the Sphinx Class of 2016 to have lunch with him. As thanks, the Class of 2016 also inducted Dr. Price as an Honorary Member of the Society. For Dr. Price’s distinguished bio click here: https://provost.upenn.edu/about/vincentprice • At the lunch, Dr. Price talked about the importance of an interdisciplinary education, the role the city of Philadelphia plays at Penn, how Penn can go about improving educational opportunities and the city at large, and Penn's expanding global footprint and influence, in particular with the Penn Wharton China Center. • Dr. Price also mentioned his long-term vision for Penn as a place that continues to harness the benefits of MOOCS (massive open online courses) to bring the benefits of 3 Penn education to millions across the globe and as a place that experiments outside of traditional means of teaching through semester long, lecture courses. • Dr. Price advised the Sphinx Class of 2016 to follow its passions and assured the class that if it thought Penn was the best four years of its lives so far, the Sphinx Class of 2016 would only continue to grow, learn, and enjoy life even more. • Penn Provost Vincent Price and a 2016 Sphinx Honorary Member wears his Sphinx cap and pin as he makes the Sphinx sign with members of the Sphinx Class of 2016 on April 24, 2016. • At the Spring Banquet, we’ll also honor members of the Sphinx Class of 1966 who will celebrate their 50th Penn reunion during Alumni Weekend, May 13-16, 2016. In March and April 2016, 10 members of the Sphinx Class of 1966 also contributed $1550 to the Sphinx Alumni Fund to support the undergraduate Sphinx membership. • Here also is a list of 27 Sphinx Alumni who contributed $100 or more to our successful Spring 2016 fundraising campaign to reduce to $100 dues for the incoming members of the Sphinx Class of 2017: 4 Sphinx Alumni 2016 Sponsors* Adam Behrens, '11 Louise Borke, '76 Sharie A. Brown, C’79, G’79 Beryl Bugatch, '66** John Budd, '89 Howard Coonley, '66 Dr. Robert Daroff, '57. Ernesto Del Valle, '12 Risa Goldstein, '78 Robert Gross, ‘66 Jeffrey Hack, '87 John Hannum,'66 Walter Herman, '55 Jim Hively, Chief, '70 Stephen H. Klitzman, ‘66 Dave Landry, '60 Tom Lang, Chief,'66 Robert Lavan, Chief, '04 Lance Laver, '66 Gary Mintz, '70 Stephen Marmon, Chief,'71 Alvin Shoemaker, '60 Michael Snow, '85 Richard Spiegel. '66 Jeffrey Tillus, '12 Susan Todres, '75 Robert Varney, '66 * Contributed $100 or more to 2016 Sphinx Alumni Fund. ** Member of the Sphinx Class of 1966 celebrating its 50th Penn Reunion May 13-16, 2016. • At the Spring Banquet, we also will bestow on a graduating member of the Class of 2016 the annual Paul Miller Leadership Award for outstanding public service and campus leadership. The award we created in 2011 is named in memory of the late Paul Miller, C’83, former Sphinx Scribe, Mask & Wig performer, and Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1994-2004. 5 • Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch: Please join the new Sphinx Class of 2017, the graduating Class of 2016, members of the Sphinx Board of Governors, and fellow Sphinx alumni as we kick off Alumni Weekend. Join us for our annual free Champagne Brunch on Saturday, May 14, 2015, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 am, just before the Class Parade down Locust Walk to College Hall Green. The Brunch will be held in the Goodhand Room of the LGBT Center, 3901 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6031. • Please also be on the lookout for a special Alumni Weekend email invitation that we will send out after the Spring Banquet. Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch May 2014 6 3. Please Donate to the 2016 Sphinx Alumni Fund Penn President Amy Gutmann in November 2015 gives the Sphinx Senior Society hand sign with members of the Sphinx Class of 2016. 7 The Sphinx Board of Governors (BOG) invites you to help us strengthen our support of the undergraduate Sphinx membership and the entire Society by participating in the 2016 Sphinx Alumni Fund Campaign. Here's what you need to know: Why: To build a stronger connection between Sphinx alumni and undergraduate members, it’s important to strengthen the current community and a future leadership legacy that extends beyond the senior year at Penn.