Connections
Ambassadors sweet

by Beverly Harrison Miller ’67, Alumni Association President

Skidmore alumni may not make it to the Court of Saint James, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be ambassadors.
A few weeks ago, the family of an incoming first-year student at Skidmore was driving home on the Massachusetts Turnpike from a trip to the Berkshires, the last trip before their daughter began college and the family changed. Anyone who has had a child go off to college knows that this is always an uncertain time. Will the student like the college? What are the people there really like?
As this family pulled off the pike into a rest area and parked their car, already bearing a Skidmore decal, another car pulled up next to them and out jumped three young women. They turned out to be three recent Skidmore graduates who had spotted the Skidmore decal and, when they saw the car pull off, they followed—just to see what the Skidmore connection would be.
These young women were ambassadors in the best sense. To this new Skidmore family, they were the personification of the spirit of community that is so important to the college.
In the new institutional plan for Skidmore, one of the three main goals is “to strengthen the sense of community at Skidmore.” It notes, “We recognize that our success, present and future, depends on partnership among all members of the Skidmore community.”
That we alums are not on campus regularly does not mean that we are no longer part of Skidmore. When we graduated, we simply changed that relationship, but it’s a bond that we keep for the rest of our lives. How often we draw on the relationship varies enormously, but it is always there and always ready to be embraced. And whenever we reach out to others in the Skidmore community, we are affirming that enduring connection.
By the way, who are you wonderful three ambassadors from the Mass Pike? E-mail me at beverlymil@aol. com. And thanks!

Connections Ambassadors sweet

Connections
Ambassadors sweet