150 Year Legacy

This weekend Adrian College will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. Quite a feat. Its roots go back to the civil war. In fact, Adrian College itself was involved in the abolitionist movement. So it has a rich and storied history.

A lot has changed since its inception in 1850. Hell, a lot has changed since I graduated in 2007. Resident halls have been redone (Pellowe has had a complete overhaul), apartments have been bought and built. There is now a skating rink and AC no longer has to share a football field with the local high school thanks to the completion of a stadium in 2006.

When I entered Adrian College in 2003, enrollment was down. A lot of people that I came in with didn't even make it past the first semester, or their first year. Now, enrollment is up and Adrian College has been ranked by US News & World Report as the #1Up-and-Coming Baccalaureate College in the Midwest for the 2nd year in a row.

So it is with even more enthusiasm that this 150 year anniversary is celebrated. Unfortunately, I can't make it to the festivities, but it promises to be a blast. Well, the part I will miss will be getting together with my former English professors, but I have plans to go to Adrian sometime in October.

A Proud Moment

Back in either my sophomore or junior year at Adrian College a group of fellow students and I decided we wanted a place where we could write and receive feedback without worrying about creating a portfolio for a grade, thus our idea of establishing a writing club was born. A few of my friends thought it was too much of a hassle to go through the process of becoming an officially recognized organization, but I went through the tiring process of paperwork, research, and building a constitution, along with my close friend Sassy.

After going through the paperwork approval and then the official approval by the board, The Pen & Ink Society was created. Membership was low, we didn’t advertise and initially decided to forgo any fees, probably not the best idea, but all we really wanted was a comfortable environment where fellow student writers could come for workshops and I think the initial generation did a good job with what we had.

Now, the creation of this club in and of itself was a proud moment, but that is not what I am so happy about today. While doing some research for work, I stumbled across one of the winning essays from Eastern Michigan University’s Education First Essay Contest.  I was shocked/proud to see one of the winners was Adrian College’s own Angie Palaian.

I met her just as my stint as the Pen & Ink Society’s acting president was over, but I remember her work as strong and powerful and I am happy to know that the club meant something to her and am glad to see her go on to bigger and better things, such as pursuing a career as a college professor.

Rock on!