Friday, December 2, 2011

FALL 2011 NEWSLETTER

PRINCETON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF CANADA, TORONTO CHAPTER
FALL 2011 NEWSLETTER


To Princeton Alumni, Parents and Friends:

The Princeton Alumni Association of Canada, Toronto Chapter, had a very successful year and we could not have done it without you. Below is a brief review of the highlights of the year along with links to more information.

Announcements

As announced at the 2010 Annual Dinner last year, Sarah Ryerson ’97 stepped down as co-president of the Toronto Chapter but agreed to continue on as treasurer. Belinda Schubert ’03 agreed to volunteer as vice-president and secretary of the Toronto Chapter.

In our sister chapter in Quebec, Annabel Soutar ’94 stepped down as president of the Montreal Chapter. Naïm Antaki '99 volunteered to be president of the Montreal Chapter. We look forward to working with Naïm and the other Montreal alums in the coming years.

PAAC relies heavily on the Alumni Association at Princeton and for the past several years we have worked closely with Amy Garawitz, the Associate Director for Regional Affairs at Princeton. This fall, Amy took a position as the Director of Alumni Engagement at the New School in New York City. We wish her all the best. Livia McCarthy has taken over as our contact with the Alumni Association. Livia and her team were instrumental in helping us plan the Annual Dinner this year.

Princeton Global Net Nights

On February 15, 2011, PAAC joined with other Princeton alumni associations in a Global NetNight: Networking Without Borders. The theme of the event was using social networking to connect to Princeton alumni in Canada, the United States and in other countries around the world.

In Toronto, 20 local alums joined with alumni around the world to experiment with structured networking exercises, discuss initiatives to help Princeton graduates find opportunities in Canada, and have a discussion panel on the use of the Internet to connect with each other.

The successful event was the first in what we hope to be many such global networking events for Princeton alumni in Toronto. We will be one of the hosting associations again next year. The event is tentatively scheduled for March 2012. Stay tuned for more details.

Class of 2015 Reception

We held our Class of 2015 reception at the Art Gallery of Ontario to welcome the newly admitted students to the Princeton family. Our special guest was Professor Emerita Ze’eva Cohen who spoke on "Princeton in the Service of the Imagination".

Professor Cohen is a dancer, choreographer, and was Professor of Dance in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University until her retirement last year. Her biography can be seen here.

After the reception, Professor Cohen joined us for a private gallery tour at the AGO.

PAAC Toronto Wins the 2011 John Maclean Award

At reunions, PAAC was awarded the 2011 John Maclean Award for being the "most improved" regional association this year. The award was presented at the Alumni Council's Annual Reunion Lunch on Friday, May 27, 2011.

The John Maclean Award is given annually in recognition of regional associations and clubs that made major reinvigoration efforts. Considered the Alumni Council’s “most improved” prize, it is named in honour of Princeton’s 10th president who established the Alumni Association of Nassau Hall in 1826 and in whose house the Office of the Alumni Association is now headquartered.

See 2011 Regional Association Awards for photos and descriptions of all the Regional Association awards this year.

Thank you to everyone who attended our events this year. We could not have done it without you.

International University Clubs of Toronto

PAAC is a founding member of the International University Clubs of Toronto. The purpose of the IUCT is to encourage friendship and shared participation of alumni activities among the members of international university clubs in the GTA. We have set out a framework for the hosting of joint events and we hope it will lead to more events that no one Toronto alumni club could organize on their own.

This past summer, the International University Clubs of Toronto and the Toronto alumni groups of Columbia University, INSEAD, MIT, Princeton University and Syracuse University joined together to host the 2011 Annual International Universities Mixer. The event was very successful with over 230 guests attending the mixer.

Due to our membership in the IUCT, Princeton Alumni will often be invited to events of other international university clubs. We will also host a few joint events a year which alumni of all IUCT groups are invited to attend.

We often will not forward these email invitations to the mailing list due to the sheer number of invitations. I encourage you to check our website regularly to see what events are coming up and how to attend.

Fall 2011 Annual Dinner

Thank you to everyone who attended our Annual Dinner on November 21, 2011. Our guest speaker was John Luria, Director of the Princeton Bridge Year Program, who gave a talk on "Building Bridges: International Services for Incoming Freshman." His presentation included stories about Princeton students working in Peru, Ghana, Serbia and India in support of community based initiatives and an inspirational video about the effect that the program has on the participants.

More information about the Bridge Year Program can be found here.

Canadian Studies

As Princeton Canadians, we are always interested in news about the Canadians on campus. One focus of Canadian activity on the Princeton campus is the Canadian Studies program. For an overview of the program, see the latest annual report.

Keep in Touch!

PAAC keeps you up to date on alumni activities through our website and periodic email. Our contact information comes from the alumni association so please make sure they have up-to-date contact information about you.

See here for instructions on how update your contact details on Tigernet.