A Network of Support

Formed in the fall of 2022, the Alumni Committee works to sustain relationships between graduates and current students.

Amrik Sahni ’06, Lauren Cricchi ’10, Jasmine Turner Perry ’11 and Luke Walker ’12 are on a Zoom conference call, talking about ways to support current Collegiate students. It’s just after noon on a warm gift of a day in mid-February. Outside, students are eating lunch around McFall Hall, taking in the serendipitous sun.

These alumni represent a microcosm of what Collegiate School’s Alumni Committee does best: foster connections — no matter the age difference, no matter the distance of separation — between both current and former Collegiate students.

The Alumni Committee, which was formed in the fall of 2022 as an extension of the Alumni Association, is intended to sustain relationships among alumni and create opportunities for graduates to come back to North Mooreland Road and connect with students as they prepare for the next stages of their lives. “I think it’s really easy to leave a place and then continue to go on with your life, but I think this Alumni Committee — and the Alumni Association in general — is an exciting opportunity to literally create a bridge back to campus for alumni,” says Turner Perry, who serves as the Alumni Association

President. “We can act in supporting roles, and that support can take a number of different forms.”

Over the next 35-plus minutes, the Alumni Committee discusses specifics about planning for this spring’s Senior Transition program. Even over Zoom, the Committee members are close; they share a harmonious bond that is guided by mutual goals. They talk enthusiastically about who they should invite to lead sessions with the members of the Class of 2023. Walker says he intends to reach out to a few members from his graduating class that might offer unique perspectives, and Cricchi immediately chimes in with a few members from her own class that she thinks serve as models of good character for current students.

“I like giving kids the opportunity to hear alternative perspectives about the future,” Sahni says, summarizing everyone’s excitement.

Because that’s what it’s all about, really: shepherding students as they move forward, helping guide them towards a bright future. It’s past 12:45 now. Given their charges, the members of the Committee say their goodbyes, laughing with each other. And then they log off, with thoughts of the Collegiate students top of mind.