By Emma Zaremba
Features editor
There’s no place like St. Bonaventure for alumni returning to campus each year on homecoming weekend.
This weekend, also known as young alumni weekend, features a schedule of events set to begin this afternoon and last through Sunday.
Alumni Services organized the entire weekend in collaboration with the Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC) and the Campus Activities Board (CAB). Unlike the alumni weekend in June, which hosts more than 1,000 alumni, guests don’t need to RSVP this weekend.
Abby Cohen, associate director of intramurals, club sports and student engagement, described this weekend as less structured than the one in June, for the level of participation is left up to the individual.
“You can pop into an event and not do the whole weekend, or you can take advantage of all three days of programming,” Cohen said.
According to Joe Flanagan, director of alumni services, young alumni weekend usually brings in around 300 to 350 former students.
“This 40th annual (celebration) is a way for recent grads to return to campus to reconnect with each other as well as undergrads and the faculty,” Flanagan said. “We keep this weekend as low cost as possible because we realize for those 2012 and 2013 alums, dollars are tight.”
As a member of the class of ’74, and alumni director for 26 years, Flanagan has attended nearly all homecoming weekends. This helps him further understand the importance of involving current students in the activities.
“We also want to welcome and promote this to current students, and that is why we have open skating on Friday night, the networking receptions and an alumni band in the Skeller—all at no cost to students,” Flanagan said.
Cohen agreed it’s important for students to get involved in the festivities.
“Alumni weekend, or homecoming weekend, is partially for the alumni, but it’s also for the students to get excited for their old friends to come back into town,” Cohen said. “We wanted to put on some late-night events that would be meaningful to them.”
CAB coordinated a few events for the weekend with the intention of increasing overall attendance.
“CAB decided to bring on Friday, during the senior social, a band of a couple guys, who are alumni themselves,” Cohen said.”Then after the hockey game they’re going to do open skating. There will be free rentals, and the rink will be open, so people can go and watch the game and then skate afterwards.”
The alumni band (Primo Ganso), playing tonight at 6 p.m. in the Skeller, was formed by Brendan Gosson, ’10, and multi-instrumental performer. Combined with Andrew Halliday on acoustic guitar and Jeff Bianchi on percussion, the band will be joined by other Bona alum. Eric Foit, ’12, and Dan Welch, ’78, will play electric bass and harmonica. Together, the group is called “The Bona Villa Bluesmen.”
Alumni are anticipating the weekend and being back together with their Bona family.
“The reason we picked that one band is because they did reach out and said there was a whole group of their class coming back, and they figured it would be great to relive their own senior socials by performing there,” Cohen said. “That was a nice way to hear from alumni and have their input.”
Carly Dell, a graduate student working at the CPRC, said members of her graduating class are excited to participate in the alumni career panel today at 4 p.m. in the hall of fame room in the Reilly Center.
“One of the alumni reached out to me before I even reached out to him because he wanted to do it (the panel),” Dell said. “He had friends who had done it, and he had been to them when he was at school here. Another girl said that she went to a lot of them, so she wants to pay it back.”
Director of the CPRC, Connie Whitcomb, explained the details of this afternoon’s panel as a kick-off to the weekend.
“We’re bringing four to five young alumni back to talk about their experiences transitioning from Bonaventure, finding a job, in many cases, relocating to places that they have no connection to and what it’s like to really start on your career,” Whitcomb said. “Immediately following that program we segue into an alumni-student networking event.”
Each member of the alumni panel graduated within the last three years. Drew Brannan, ’11, ’12, Kelley Burke, ’13, Mike Vitron, ’12,’13 and Brian Michel, ’11, ’12, will share the realities of what life is like after Bonaventure.
“(The panelists) share really good information,” Whitcomb said. “It’s positive in the sense that the ones coming back are employed, but they share the realities, too. It’s realistic information and I think that’s the most helpful and useful information.”
Dell, who is moderating the panel, said she’s interested to see how it plays out and experience it as the middleman.
“This is the first year where I know people in the alumni panel, so I’m excited to hear and see how honest they are (in a formal situation) to the hardships, because most people do go through a tough time when looking for a job,” Dell said.
Although Dell hopes to use this weekend as a learning experience, she also looks forward to spending time with her friends.
“It’s like a reunion. I’m just excited to all be reunited and catch up, because it’s hard, even though we have social media and stuff like that now,” Dell said. “We’re all so busy, so it’s not easy to keep in touch and know how people’s day to day lives are going,” Dell said.
Whitcomb said homecoming weekend is intended to be an enjoyable experience for all current and past Bonnies.
“I think there’s an affinity that people have for St. Bonaventure, and I think it’s hard to leave,” she said. “Even though a piece of it always goes with you, there’s just such a wonderful desire to come back.”
