All alumni are welcome to a kickoff oral history event, Oral History Project: Blacks in the Ivy League, from 1-3pm on the Friday of Reunions (May 31) at Chancellor Green in the Rotunda and Upper Hyphen. Participate in the telling and recording of memories and experiences of Black undergraduate and graduate alumni and staff at Princeton (as well as at other Ivy League institutions they may have attended). Refreshments will be served.

This event is sponsored by the Princeton Area Alumni Association, the Association of Black Princeton Alumni, and the Alumni Council Committee on Princetoniana.

Contact:
Cheryl L. Rowe-Rendleman, '81 crowerendleman@rocketmail.com
Tom Swift '76 tcmswift@comcast.net

General Information: princetonareaalumni@gmail.com

Join us for First Fridays, a monthly recurring event for undergraduate and graduate Princeton alumni, graduate students, and parents.  On the first Friday of each month, area alumni and their guests will meet to enjoy a prix fixe luncheon buffet at the Nassau Club in downtown Princeton.  As a special bonus for PA3, a Princeton University PhD candidate will present his/her work to the group in this informal setting.  Topics vary monthly and are always interesting!

This month, we will be joined by Jon Gudmundsson, a fifth year graduate student in the Department of Physics.  Jon will talk with us about the recent cosmological results from the Planck Mission, an experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background radiation of the universe, namely the relic radiation from the big bang.  The data reveal the structure of the universe over a vast range of angular scales and frequencies and have opened new avenues of research for astrophysicists.  Jon will discuss what we have learned from the Planck data and will describe ongoing efforts in the field.  Read this NY Times article for more information on the Planck Mission.


Specially priced at $25/person (or $30 if you choose not to pay PA3's annual dues), lunch includes the Nassau Club’s full buffet as well as a complementary beverage (wine, beer, soft drink). Pre-registration is required.

Lunch Reservation

Non-PA3 Dues Payer $30.00 USD PA3 Dues Payer $25.00 USD

PA3 welcomed Jason McSheene, a PhD candidate in the Molecular Biology department at our First Friday lunch at the Nassau Club on April 5th, 2013.  The group was riveted by Jason's description of, among other things, the development of the zebrafish embryo.  To get a sense of how this development looks, Jason recommended watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQNxHGpK7Wc.  He also described for the group the importance of the Nodal gene and how it is expressed in left-right patterning.  The following schematic provides more detail.



http://dev.biologists.org/content/139/18/3257/F1.poster.jpg

Jason also mentioned Professor Bonnie Bassler's fascinating work and suggested watching her TED Talk on bacterial communication at  http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html .

What a wonderful and interesting luncheon!

First Friday Lunch - Andra Geana, third year graduate student in Psychology will discuss her work

Lunch Reservation

Non-PA3 Dues Payer $30.00 USD PA3 Dues Payer $25.00 USD

The Princeton Area Alumni Association won the Alumni Council's ACE Award for Excellence in Communication!

Pictured below are Henry Von Kohorn '66, President of the Alumni Association, Sara Hastings '09, PA3's secretary, and Daniel Hayes-Patterson '09, PA3's technology chair.


The full write up of the award is as follows:


To the Princeton Area Alumni Association

It was 2008. The Princeton Area Alumni Association (PA3) had lain dormant for ten years. General consensus was that with the University and its manifold attractions in the backyard, Princeton-area alumni didn’t need an active organization to bring them together. And trying to persuade them otherwise involved a mass communication plan that was unsustainable. The PA3 was doomed.

Not so, believed a hardy band who were undaunted. Yes, a solid communications plan was essential to inform and engage area alumni. And now it was doable, with new technologies at hand. A simple blog-style website was created; a monthly broadcast e-newsletter was initiated; Facebook, and later Twitter, were added to the arsenal.

Communication was re-established, was effective, and yet somehow lacked energy. Enter the dynamic duo of Dan Hayes-Patterson ’09 and fiancee Sara Hastings ’09. In 2011, Dan was elected PA3’s Technology Chair and Sara its Secretary. The communications “dream team” was born.

Computer programmer Dan created a dynamic website so easy to use that even “non-techies” could post content with ease and with automatic prompts to post on Facebook and Twitter. Each page has a “Share” button. A multi-pronged communications approach came alive.

Sara oversees the content of communications, and the new website’s homepage reveals the wealth of material now generated. Information about community service, social activities, and careers. News and networking. Photos and fun. E-newsletters link to the site and the site in turn archives the e-newsletters. With PayPal, registering for events or ordering a PA3 t-shirt is just a click away. No surprise that website visits increased over 100% in a same-period comparison between 2011 and 2012, and dues paying membership has grown.

Through its revitalized communications, anchored by a dynamic website, and with its many opportunities for fellowship, the PA3 serves as a welcome companion not competitor to the best old place of all. The University benefits right along with the PA3’s membership of undergraduate and graduate alumni, parents of current and former students, and surviving partners of alumni. We are delighted to award the Princeton Area Alumni Association with the Alumni Council’s ACE Award for excellence in communications.

Alumni Council Alumni Relations & Communications Committee
Presented on 23 April 2013