1 SPRING 2015 NEWSLETTER Contents: 1. Welcome Message from the President, Board of Governors 2. Attend Spring Banquet (4/24)
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SPRING 2015 NEWSLETTER Contents: 1. Welcome Message from the President, Board of Governors 2. Attend Spring Banquet (4/24) and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch (5/16) 3. Please Donate to the Sphinx Alumni Fund 4. Current Sphinx Campus News 5. Sphinx Alumni News 6. Sign Up for the Sphinx Class Alumni Directory 7. Visit Penn Campus as a Distinguished Sphinx Alumnus 8. Mentor a Sphinx Undergraduate 9. Contribute to a New Sphinx Historical Archives Page 10. Help Us Identify Missing Honorary Sphinx Members 11. Join the Sphinx Facebook and LinkedIn Groups 12. Send Us Your News, Comments, and Suggestions 1. Welcome Message from the President Since our Fall Newsletter in October 2014, the Sphinx Senior Society, now in its 115th year, has continued to work through its 17 member Board of Governors (BOG) and the 30 members of the Sphinx Class of 2015 to implement our five goals: 1. Strengthen alumni outreach; 2. Support the undergraduate program; 3. Add an online Sphinx Class Alumni Directory to 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 2015 Newsletter, you can read about our most recent activities to achieve our goals. These activities 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; 1 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 10 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 fifth 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, and with more web site assistance a new Sphinx historical archives page. This archive will include a recently rediscovered 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 year in the Sphinx Senior Society. For example, you can: Mentor a Class of 2015 Sphinx student in the “Sphinx Links” mentoring program; Speak on campus as part of the new Sphinx Alumni Series; Join already over 150 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 Spring Banquet on April 24, 2015, and/or the annual Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch on May 16, 2015; 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; Samir Malik, C’08, W’08, WG’14, Secretary; Merrie S. Frankel, C’76, President-Emeritus; Eileen McKeown, C’10, Coordinator, Sphinx Links Mentoring Program; Kiera Reilly, C’93, Coordinator, Alumni Outreach; Carlos Rodriguez, W’12; Lex Ruby-Howe, C’07, WEV’09, WEV’10, GED’12 ; Anita Saggurti, C’12; Glen S. Schuster, C’86, Co-Coordinator, Web Site and Class Directory; Franklin Shen, ENG’03, Co-Coordinator, Web Site and Class Directory; Elizabeth Katz Miller, W’87; and Current Student Officers: Tim Lee, C’15, Chief; Sam Rappaport, W’15, Scribe; and Victoria Ford, C’15, Scribe. 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. Attend Spring Banquet(4/24) and Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch(5/16) April 24, 2015, Spring Banquet: Celebrate and bid farewell to the Sphinx Class of 2015, welcome the Sphinx Class of 2016, and socialize with Fellow Sphinx Alums! One way to distract ourselves from the extended cold and snowy weather many of us had this winter is to turn our attention to spring! The Board of Governors of the Sphinx Senior Society invites all Sphinx alums and guests to the annual Spring Banquet on Friday, April 24, 2015. 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 2016 and this year’s Honorary Sphinx member, Professor Justin McDaniel, Professor of Religious Studies, Chair, Department of Religious Studies and Undergraduate Studies Chair. Professor Justin McDaniel 2015 Honorary Sphinx Inductee According to James (Jung Ho) An, Sphinx 2015, “ Professor McDaniel's research foci include Lao, Thai, Pali and Sanskrit literature, art and architecture, and manuscript studies. His first book, “Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words,” won the Harry Benda Prize. His second book, “The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magic Monk”, won the Kahin Prize. He has received grants from the NEH, Mellon, Rockefeller, Fulbright, PACRIM, Luce, and the SSRC Foundations, among others. He is the co-editor of the journals: Buddhism Compass, Journal of Lao Studies, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. He has won teaching and advising awards at Harvard U, Ohio U, the University of California, and the Ludwig Prize for Teaching at Penn. In 2012 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and in 2014 a fellow of Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His forthcoming work includes edited books on Thai Manuscripts, Buddhist Biographies, and Buddhist ritual. He also has a new book on modern Buddhist architecture.” 3 We also plan to honor members of the Sphinx Class of 1965 celebrating their 50th Reunion this coming Alumni Weekend in May. At the Spring Banquet, we also will bestow 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, former Sphinx Scribe, Mask & Wig performer, and Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1994-2004. Please look in your Inbox next week for a special Spring Banquet e-mail invitation with a link to order tickets. You can also purchase your tickets for cocktails, dinner, and the evening program by clicking here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sphinx-spring-banquet-tickets-16135282063 May 16, 2015, Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch: Please join the new Sphinx Class of 2016, the graduating Class of 2015, 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 16, 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 4 3. Please Donate to the Sphinx Alumni Fund Penn President Amy Gutmann Hosts the Sphinx Senior Society Class of 2015, November 2014 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 2015 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. What: Our specific campaign goals are two: first, to reduce the amount of Sphinx dues for the next Sphinx Class of 2016, and second, to add to the Sphinx Alumni Endowment Fund we’ve created to support current and future Society programs and activities. Current undergraduate dues are $225 per the 30- member class. These dues support programming, events, and get-togethers of the current Sphinx class. The Ask: We seek to raise funds to build our Sphinx Alumni Endowment Fund initially to offset$4,000 ($125 x 30 members) by April 24, 2015, the date of the annual Sphinx Spring Banquet. These funds will reduce the dues of the incoming Sphinx Class of 2016 to $100 per member. We intend to use further endowment contributions to keep future undergraduate dues to an affordable level, or even eliminate such dues, as well as to support ongoing activities of the Society such as the Fall and Spring undergraduate smokers and inductions, the Fall Sphinx-Friars Homecoming Reception, the Spring Banquet, the Alumni Weekend Champagne Brunch, the 5 “Sphinx Links” mentoring program, the Fall, Spring and Summer Newsletters, our new Sphinx alumni Class Directory and our ever improving web site, www.sphinxseniorsociety.com How: Be part of this important initiative by: * Donating here. OR * Mailing your check made out to the Sphinx Senior Society to John K.