Alumni

• Alumni with an Edge
• Hire a Forester!

FROM THE PRESIDENT

At Commencement on May 9 — and at hundreds of other graduation ceremonies nationwide — many students and their families combined joyful celebrations with serious worries about the future. The worldwide economic recession has raised challenges that were unforeseen four years ago when the Class of 2009 matriculated.

Despite the anxieties of this historic year, there is good news to share from the College's newest group of graduates. Dozens have accepted jobs at banks, businesses, hospitals, schools, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Numerous others are going on to medical school, law school, or graduate programs in economics, creative writing, mechanical engineering, molecular and human genetics, and still other disciplines. Some have joined Teach for America, the federal program that assigns bright new college graduates to teaching positions in impoverished school districts across the country. Still other graduates are traveling around the world to teach English in China or, in the case of senior class speaker Maria Jose Norero, moving to Ecuador on a Fulbright Scholarship to research the impact of documentary filmmaking on identity in Afro-Ecuadorian communities.

In many respects they are following in the footsteps of you, their alumni forbears. As the Class of 2009 moves out into the world, I invite you to think back to this time in your life. Did you have a job lined up? Were you enrolling in graduate school? Did you have a one-way plane ticket and a backpack? Was your direction ahead clear or was the future a big question mark?

For many of you, I suspect, graduation was exhilarating and confusing at the same time. It certainly was for me. But building on the education you received at Lake Forest College, you stepped forward and forged your own paths. Conscious of this, the College last December began an advertising campaign to honor alumni success and highlight the value of a Lake Forest education. We've already featured more than ten recent alumni in this "Alumni with an Edge" campaign — which connects their achievements with their experiences at the College. If you have not yet seen one of these ads, you can view them and read more at www.lakeforest.edu/success.

As you reflect on how far you've come since you received your diploma, there are more opportunities than ever for you to help current students and recent graduates — and we hope you will. While the recession has diminished job prospects for college graduates, the College's Career Advancement Center, under the direction of Lisa Hinkley, offers multiple ways that alumni can connect with Lake Forest students. For example, the new Hire a Forester! program allows alumni and employers to post jobs and internships on a secure online network. You can read more about this program on page 5. Please consider getting involved.

To the Class of 2009, I congratulate you and wish you well. We hope to see you back on campus for Homecoming in the fall.

Stephen D. Schutt
President