Hunt Scholars Alumni Newsletter: Fall 2019

FALL 2019

HUNT LEADERSHIP SCHOLARS PROGRAM ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

STARTING OFF THE SCHOOL YEAR STRONG Hunt Leadership Scholars from all four years came together for our annual retreat the first weekend of the semester. This year, the retreat was at Allaso Ranch just outside of Tyler, TX. Students enjoyed ziplining, a fabulous pool/lazy river/aquatic center, and, of course, good, old fashioned retreat staples like campfires, s'mores, and staying up way too late bonding and

GREETINGS FROM THE HILLTOP! Whether any of us can believe it or not, the fall 2019 semester has come to a close. The Hunt Leadership Scholars have enjoyed serving our campus through roles in Student Senate, Student Foundation, Student Representatives to the Board of Trustees, and more; and they have enjoyed serving and connecting to our Dallas community through a number of projects and events.

I am especially excited to report two things: first, the Class of 2022 will be studying abroad together in London and Belgium during May term 2020. Please stay tuned for updates on how to follow along with our travels!

Second, the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program is now on Instagram and Facebook! I hope you'll follow us to see what the students are up to in their leadership journeys. All accounts are linked on the last page of this newsletter.

playing games. It was the perfect start to the fall 2019 semester.

Thank you for all that you do to support these students, and as always, enjoy our updates!

WHAT'S NEW? The Hunt Scholar holiday party was an extra special one this year. In addition to enjoying food and each other's company, the students assembled holiday treat bags for the SMU housekeeping staff. A few students delivered the treats to a staff meeting to say thank you for all of the hard work this group does to keep our campus looking its best.

Hunt Scholars traveled near and far since this past summer!

Above, juniors Paxton Murphy and Graham McGee study abroad.

Below, sophomore Luckett Robinson and junior Jake Johnston ran into each other while interning in D.C.over the summer.

The first year Hunt Leadership Scholars once again enrolled in a leadership seminar designed to get them better acquainted with their own leadership styles, key SMU administrators, and of course, each other.

WHAT'S NEW? Junior Hunt Scholar Nick Fontela serves as the Student Foundation Campus Events Chair this year.

He and his team organized a hugely successful Celebration of Lights earlier this month! The entire campus community comes out for this

Hunt Scholars attended a number

holiday tradition,

of community events this

including all of the

semester, including those

Hunt Scholars, of

supporting the Texas Women's

course!

Foundation, Council Circle Ten, and the Anti-Defamation League.

In the name of stress relief, the Hunt Scholars took an indoor cycling class together at Lync Cycling in Snider Plaza. This has become a beloved annual tradition for the students.

FEATURED ALUMNUS MEREDITH CAREY Graduation Year: 2015 Hometown: Dallas, TX Majors: Journalism & Spanish Current Position: Associate Editor at Condé Nast Traveler

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

When I was in high school, my English teacher pushed me to enroll in newspaper, because my sentences were all too long and she thought a snappier writing style would serve me well.

Honestly, I owe this all to her! I feel in love and worked my way up to editor in chief. I was drawn to SMU for a whole slew of reasons, but one of them was the journalism school, which is filled with former reporters who really teach you by throwing you into the deep end of journalism. It wasn’t until after I studied abroad junior year that I realized what I wanted to write about once I graduated: travel. Cue a year interning at Southwest’s inflight magazine and then securing my dream job at Condé Nast Traveler about three months after graduation, and here we are. Despite the media landscape today, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

What books do you gift or have you gifted the most to other people?

Bear with me: it’s called Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone. It’s about how despite not having a brain or nervous system to speak of, jellyfish are incredibly intelligently designed. That design offers near-infinite applications to medicine, engineering, biotech, and so much more. But it’s also about the writer, Juli Berwald, finding her identity outside of “mother” and reigniting her passion for science. I picked it up because I loved the cover—and was not disappointed. Now I give it every chance I get (and talk about it on my Women Who Travel podcast at least once every few months).

FEATURED ALUMNUS What is something you believe that other people believe is insane?

All potatoes are bad, even fries.

What is your favorite SMU memory?

Oh gosh. So many. I don’t think I can pick just one! Plus, some of my favorite post-grad memories have been made with friends from SMU and the Hunt program, so I’m not done making more.

What was the last costume you wore?

I was Cruella DeVille this past Halloween, sans dalmatians.

Hobbies?

It’s my job so the lines get a little blurry but there’s no doubt that it’s travel. I try to get out of New York, even just upstate, as much as possible.

If you had a single sentence for Nancy Ann and Ray Hunt right now, what would it be?

Thank you—for giving me lifelong friends, allowing me to graduate debt-free, setting me up for leadership positions and career goals in the future. Thanks for it all!

Thank you, Meredith, for letting us feature you!

We just had to include this fabulous throwback to the class of 2015 enjoying the April 2015 Tate Lecture & Dinner with Robin Roberts.

ALUMNI UPDATES FALL EVENT UPDATES

A huge thank you to the 28 Hunt Scholar alumni who are currently serving as mentors to junior Hunt Scholars! Mentors and mentees meet every six weeks (virtually or in person) to talk about various professional development topics.

Missed out on mentoring this year? Never fear! We will need 20 more mentors for the Class of 2022 next year.

Another huge thank you to those of you who joined us for Homecoming 2019!

Between our Happy Hour at The Lumen and our shared affinity group tent on the Boulevard, I hope you got an opportunity to connect with your classmates and enjoy some time back on the Hilltop.

NEW JOB? BIG MOVE? OTHER EXCITING UPDATES?

Send them to lrdavis@smu.edu! Be sure to keep your contact information upto-date, too, especially your email address, to stay informed on alumni events and news.Â

SAVE THE DATES

March 27: Hunt Scholar Interview Day Date forthcoming: Student & Alumni Service Project

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