Some of my favorite Macalester moments happen when I step out from behind the president\u2019s desk and participate actively in campus life. Our students, faculty, and staff know that I love to drop in for lunch at Caf\u00e9 Mac, show up at student capstone presentations, cheer on our Scots at sporting events, and attend faculty lectures and student performances. Being present for these activities allows me to support the incredible work happening on campus and to marvel at our community\u2019s many talents. Even as I jog around our campus on a Sunday afternoon, I\u2019m reminded: this is a special place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year (unlike the previous two), I also have been able to travel extensively and meet more alumni, parents, and friends of the college in person. Being on the road has allowed me to understand the global Mac community in a new way. I\u2019ve experienced firsthand how the Macalester spirit extends way beyond our campus boundaries. I see it when I find myself in a sea of blue and orange at an \u201caway\u201d baseball game in Phoenix. I feel it viscerally when I hear Macalester\u2019s Pipe Band (including my spouse) compete at the Highland Games in Waukesha. I\u2019ve experienced it in action at gatherings all over the world: at a restaurant in London, on a pickleball court in Boston, with a Presbyterian church choir in Havana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I\u2019m with Mac people, I feel the college\u2019s unique spirit\u2014and it energizes me to no end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an incredible diversity of perspectives within our alumni community, across the generations and many eras of the college\u2019s history. Yet, in all of the conversations I\u2019ve had and stories I\u2019ve heard, what stands out to me most is the fabric that unites us because we share Macalester in common. It\u2019s woven of certain threads: an orientation toward optimism, the courage to dream, a shared belief in a future that\u2019s better than the past, and the sense that it\u2019s our responsibility to help build it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The values that first brought alumni to Macalester as students\u2014who, during their time on campus, form a community of learners determined to create a more just and peaceful world\u2014 continue to shape their work and inform their worldviews years, even decades, after graduation. I see evidence of this across the wide range of career paths and initiatives our alumni undertake. (See for yourself in the Class Notes section of this magazine!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also inspired by how Mac alumni across the globe seek out opportunities to engage with the current campus community, and with one another, to give back. They host events in their cities, connect with faculty to participate in a class by Zoom, contribute to the Mac Fund, and serve on the Alumni Board, on Reunion committees, and in other groups\u2014all to support the college\u2019s mission and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon, we will have a Commencement celebration, at which we\u2019ll send the Class of 2023 off into the next big chapter of their lives. They will embark on adventures near and far, across the country and around the world. Some will find homes in the Twin Cities, close enough to meet for coffee with a faculty mentor, give an informational interview to a student, attend a theater performance, or watch a game in the stadium. For many others, Mac will become more distant, at least in physical proximity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019ve learned that geographic separation needn\u2019t diminish our connections. It\u2019s become easier to stay in touch across the miles. And there\u2019s no limit to new relationships that can be formed within our global Mac community\u2014virtually and in person, whether you graduated last year or fifty years ago. I urge all alumni to lean on and lean in to this Mac community. Of course, that includes a close circle of college friends and mentors. But it can be so much more than that. The Mac community\u2014loved ones, acquaintances, people you haven\u2019t met yet, all of it\u2014is yours for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n