1. Welcome Message from the President, Sphinx Board of Governors 2
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SUMMER 2015 NEWSLETTER Contents: 1. Welcome Message from the President, Sphinx Board of Governors 2. Over 100 Sphinx Alumni and Undergraduate Members Attend Spring Banquet and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch 3. Sphinx Raises Over $7500 From Nearly 60 Sphinx Alumni But You Can Still Donate 4. Current Sphinx Campus News: Meet the Sphinx Class of 2016 and the Sphinx Board of Governors, 2015-2016 5. Annual Report of the Sphinx Class of 2015 6. Annual Daily Pennsylvanian Ad Bids Farewell to Sphinx Class of 2015 7. Sphinx Alumni News 8. Sign Up for the New Online Sphinx Class Alumni Directory 9. Order Sphinx Gear Directly From “Zazzle,” and Via Sphinx Gmail Account 10. Visit Penn Campus as a Distinguished Sphinx Alumnus 11. Mentor a Sphinx Undergraduate 12. Contribute to a New Sphinx Historical Archives Page 13. Help Us Identify Missing Honorary Sphinx Members 14. Join the Sphinx Facebook and LinkedIn Groups 15. Send Us Your News, Comments, and Suggestions 1. Welcome Message from the President, Sphinx Board of Governors Since our Spring Newsletter in March 2015, the Sphinx Senior Society, now in its 115th year, has continued to implement its five major goals through its 17-member Board of Governors (BOG), the 30 members of the Sphinx Class of 2015 and so far, the 23 newest members from the Sphinx Class of 2016: 1. Strengthen alumni outreach; 2. Support the undergraduate program; 3. Upgrade 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 1 5. Raise funds to reduce or eliminate undergraduate dues as well as support the Society’s activities. In this Summer 2015 Newsletter, you can read about our most recent actions to achieve our goals. These include: Expansion of our new 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; Continuation of a program started by the Class of 2014 to invite distinguished Sphinx alumni to campus to meet with the current Sphinx class; Matching of 12 Sphinx Class of 2015 mentees to date with 15 Sphinx alumni mentors in various professional fields through our “Sphinx Links” mentoring program, now in its sixrh year; Our continually expanding website, www.sphinxseniorsociety.com, which contains news of current Sphinx events, alumni accomplishments, an updated Class Awards list going back to 1900 and the founding of Sphinx, and later this year a new Sphinx historical archives page. This archive will include 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, and will eventually post the video on our web site. 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 coming academic year in the Sphinx Senior Society. For example, you can: Mentor a Class of 2016 Sphinx student in the “Sphinx Links” mentoring program; Speak on campus as part of the new Sphinx Alumni Series; Join already 165 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] Interview a fellow Sphinx classmate of public interest for a future newsletter; Attend the annual Sphinx-Friars Homecoming Reception in Houston Hall, Saturday, November 7, 2015, 3-5 p.m. Donate to support these activities. In sum, please join us and …Think Sphinx! Steve Klitzman, C’66, President, Sphinx Senior Society Board of Governors, [email protected] , [email protected]; W: 202-418-1763; H: 301-263-0616; C: 202-277-9509. 2 2. Over 100 Sphinx Alumni and Undergraduate Members Attend Spring Banquet and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch Two major Sphinx Senior Society events since our Spring 2015 Newsletter we sent you in March were the annual Spring Banquet held April 24, 2015 at the historic Orpheus Club near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and the annual Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch held on May 16, 2015 in the LGBT Carriage House on the Penn campus. Spring Banquet. Nearly 60 undergraduate members and Sphinx alumni bid farewell to the Sphinx Class of 2015, inducted the Sphinx Class of 2016, and a new Honorary member, and socialized with Fellow Sphinx Alums! At the banquet we officially initiated the Sphinx Class of 2016 and this year’s Honorary Sphinx member, Professor Justin McDaniel, Professor of Religious Studies, Chair, Department of Religious Studies and Undergraduate Studies Chair. The Sphinx Class of 2016 inducted at the Spring Banquet (above) and the three officers of the Sphinx Class of 2016 (below), left to right: Sydney Schneider, C’16, Scribe, Devin Grossman, W’16, Chief, and Prashant Ramesh, ENG’16, Pharisee 3 Sphinx Alumni and Undergraduates at Spring Banquet Sphinx 2015 Honorary Member Prof. Justin McDaniel (center) speaks at annual Spring Banquet with Steve Klitzman, C’66, President, Sphinx Board of Governors (left) and Elizabeth Katz Miller, W’87, Board Secretary (right) Spring Banquet Honors Sphinx Members of the 50th Penn Reunion Class of 1965 At the Spring Banquet we also honored members of the Sphinx Class of 1965 celebrating their 50th Reunion during Alumni Weekend in May 2015. Representing the Class of 1965 was Charles E. Dagit, Jr., a distinguished Philadelphia architect and author of a new book on his late, great Penn teacher- renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. Dagit’s book is entitled “Louis I. Kahn, Architect: Remembering the Man And Those Who Surrounded Him,” Transaction Publishers, 2013. (see also Sphinx Alumni News) 4 Tim Lee, Sphinx Chief 2015, Mrs. Carolyn Hoyler, wife of Carl Hoyler, ’59, and Charles E. Dagit, Jr., C’65 and Sphinx ’65, chatting and smiling at the April 24, 2015 Sphinx Spring Banquet Society Bestows 2015 Paul Miller Leadership Award on Rishi Simha, W’15 At the Spring Banquet, we also bestowed on a graduating member of the Class of 2015 the annual Paul Miller Leadership Award for outstanding public service and campus leadership. The award is named in memory of the late Paul Miller, C’83. He was a former Sphinx Scribe, Mask & Wig performer, graduate of Harvard Law School, an author of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1994-2004, Obama Administration official, and law professor at the University of Washington School of Law. The winner of the 2015 Paul Miller Award is Rishi Simha, W’15. Simha won the award for his outstanding campus and public service leadership as Chairman, The Mask & Wig Club, President, One in Four, a leading campus educational group which seeks to prevent and to respond effectively to sexual assault and rape on campus, Resident Advisor, Fisher-Hassenfeld Residential House, and Recruiting Director, Wharton Council. 5 Greg Suss, (left) C’75 and Vice President, Sphinx Board of Governors and Steve Klitzman,(right) C’66, President, Sphinx Board of Governors, present 2015 Paul Miller Leadership Award to Rishi Simha, W’15 Here’s a link to the Spring Banquet pictures: Sphinx Open See also Sphinx Facebook page for banquet pictures at https://www.facebook.com/sphinxseniorsociety Alumni Weekend Brunch. Members of the graduating Class of 2015, their families and friends, members of the Sphinx Board of Governors, and fellow Sphinx alumni, especially a number from the 50th reunion year of 1965, kicked off Alumni Weekend at our annual free Champagne Brunch on Saturday, May 16, 2015. We held the brunch just before the Class Parade down Locust Walk to College Hall Green. Sphinx held the brunch as it has for the past several years in the Goodhand Room of the Carriage House and LGBT Center, 3901 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6031. Sphinx Alumni Members and one Friars Alumnus attending and/or RSVPing to the brunch included : Claire Choi, C’10, Alison Cote, C’95, Howard Coonley, C’66, Charles E. Dagit, Jr., C’65, Dr. Robert Daroff, C’57, Robert Fabrikant, C’65, Ray Flores, W’10, Lesley Horton, C’10, Sarika Pandit, W’09, John R. Reese, C’65, Steve Roth (Friars 1966), Aviva Vogelstein, C’10, Richard and Terri Zacharia, C’65, as well as Sphinx Board Members John Fiorillo, W’85 and Sphinx Board Treasurer, Steve Klitzman, C’66, and Sphinx Board President, Glen Schuster, C’85, and Gregory Suss, C’75 and Sphinx Board Vice President. 6 Sphinx Board Officers at May 16, 2015 Alumni Weekend, Champagne (and Orange Juice) Brunch, left to right: John Fiorillo, W’85,Treasurer, Steve Klitzman, C’66, President, and Greg Suss, C’75, Vice President Sphinx Alumni, Family and Friends at Champagne Brunch Here’s a link to the brunch photos: https://upenn.box.com/s/a0mtunggt2n3uuwnie0vai91lybvq126 7 3. Sphinx Raises Over $7500 From Nearly 60 Sphinx Alumni But You Can Still Contribute Penn President Amy Gutmann Hosts the Sphinx Senior Society Class of 2015, November 2014 The Sphinx Board of Governors (BOG) is very pleased to announce that nearly 60 Sphinx alumni helped us strengthen our support of the undergraduate Sphinx membership and the entire Society by donating in the 2015 Sphinx Alumni Fund Campaign. They responded well to the following “pitch” to which we encourage any of you who’ve yet to contribute to do so as well: 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.