“Why give to Emory College?”

For anyone who has asked that question lately--or been asked--we have the top five (or so) reasons from a conversation held last month among a few Emory College alumni, staff and faculty.

For example, “Emory College” is not the same as “Emory University"--the college’s endowment is actually quite small compared to its peers.

Tash Elwyn 93C, Chandra Stephens-Albright 85C, Wendell Reilly 80C, and Matthew Bernstein (chair of the Department of Film Studies) are all volunteers supporting the college in raising $100 million during Campaign Emory for scholarships, faculty support, and enhanced facilities.

They dropped by the fourth floor of Candler Library and joined Bobby Paul, dean of Emory College, Kim Loudermilk 97PhD, senior associate dean of Emory College, Josh Newton, senior associate vice president for development, and David Raney 99PhD, editor of the Quadrangle magazine, to share their ideas--and enthusiasm--for supporting the college during these lean economic times.

See the video.

-- Hal Jacobs, senior editor, Emory College of Arts and Sciences

The Emory University Symphony Orchestra, led by Director of Orchestral Studies Richard Prior, plays at Celebration Emory, a Campaign Emory event in New York City, on Feb. 26, 2009. More than 350 guests attended the event at the New York Marriott Marquis, including University President Jim Wagner and Emory Alumni Board President Crystal Edmonson 95C.

The Emory Alumni Board (EAB) held its annual summer retreat at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA, this past weekend. It was Emory’s first time taking this group to Callaway, which is located about 80 miles southwest of Atlanta, close to the Alabama state line. (Many of our cell phones kept switching back and forth between eastern and central time, which was kind of amusing!) It was very hard not to relax in Pine Mountain. Beautiful woods, gardens, lakes, and farms surround you, and that atmosphere—along with a lot of hard-working alumni—made our conference a great success!

Click here to see a slide show, highlighting activities (alumni) from the whole weekend!

Members flew in from as far away as California. Several spouses and partners came along, too. It’s always great to meet the families of those we work with throughout the year. The weather was gorgeous for the most part; only a light summer shower or two the whole weekend.

Most people arrived on Friday, just in time for our welcome reception that evening. Refreshing summer cocktails were the beverage of choice and many convened on the patio as evening turned into night.

Following breakfast on Saturday, a welcome from EAB President Crystal Edmonson 95C kicked off our workday. In our morning session, we discussed everything from our “Board of the Future” to our first EAB Leadership Scholarship recipients.

After lunch (which featured the best and largest cookies of any conference center I’ve been to!), afternoon business included a special session with Susan Cruse, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, who discussed EAB involvement in Campaign Emory. Subsequent sessions touched on University career services and thinking about the “Big E.” That’s “Emory.”

Before breaking for the day, we recognized members who were rotating off the board, some having served for six years! We also welcomed the incoming executive committee for 2009–10 and outlined upcoming goals.

Once that was finished, free time began. And there was a lot to do at Callaway—pools, lakes, nature trails, gardens, golf—just to name a few! Two of my EAA colleagues, Kelley Quinn 08B and Missy Rodil, and I headed out on foot and made our way toward the nearby lake. We walked around it, checking out the water skiers and swimmers, and then strolled through some gardens and a vacation cottage (which we all registered to win—fingers crossed!).

Then it was time to freshen up for dinner. We had a cookout indoor-style, including shrimp kabobs, chicken, baked potatoes and peach cobbler (we are in Georgia, ‘natch)—a delicious way to end the day and the retreat overall.

-- Lindsay Topping, assistant director, annual giving, Emory Annual Fund

A stifled smile and beckoning crook of the finger is how Whitney Ivey 08C paced the models from off the runway during the first Atlanta Young Alumni and Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA) fashion benefit for children’s leukemia research, Thursday, March 26. I could see Whitney framed through the lens of my Canon Rebel XT (I was the self-appointed photog for the night), trying her best not to laugh at the intentionally over-exaggerated poses by some of the male alumni models as she sent them one-by-one, alumna by alumnus, down the red carpet in between Bill Hallman’s two ateliers in Virginia-Highland.

Montshona Edwards 07C, event-coordinator extraordinaire, confidently watched her fellow alumni strut their stuff from the end of the runway as the rest of the alumni models hid inside the back room, checking makeup, hurriedly fixing scarves, trying to hide pesky price tags, and anxiously awaited Whitney’s subtle signal.

It all started as a proposal for an event partnership between CEBA, an interest group of the EAA, and the Atlanta Young Alumni. Montshona then added the fashion twist, and Darrah Brustein 06C offered the “in” we needed—Bill Hallman’s contact information. And so, the seeds of the CEBA-Young Alumni fashion show were planted, but everyone knows that Emory alumni are never fully satisfied—why stop there?

That’s when the idea of making it a benefit came into play—we could make the fashion show into something more, something that would hopefully last longer than spring’s fleeting fashions (fabulous as they were). If we made the show benefit the Emory’s Children Leukemia Research Fund, not only could we fund-raise from alumni for a great cause, but we could double our outcome as all donations would also count toward Campaign Emory, the University’s $1.6B dollar campaign.

All our planning, excitement, lengthy email threads, and runway run-throughs resulted in a fantastic fashion show; with wine and hors d’oeuvres in hand, CEBA members, young alumni, and even some Emory staff gathered at Bill Hallman to usher in the season’s fashions—at a 15 percent discounted rate, courtesy of Mr. Hallman himself. Stationed at a faux driftwood table, DJ Mike Bradley, a friend of Jamie Chan 06C, donated his skills and spun amazing beats and mixes to keep the crowds hyped while Blue Taylor, a professional MAC makeup artist from the Purple Door Salon graciously anointed the models with signature fashion stripes—blue for the boys, white for the ladies.

After the models had made their two runs down the runway (wearing signature outfits they had picked out themselves a couple of days earlier…with some subtle post-production help from the Highlands’ fashion guardian angel, Bill) alumni mingled and entered a raffle for a free month of boot camp, courtesy of BTB Fitness, while backstage we wrapped up the night with some mini-photo shoots before closing up shop.

Click here to see pictures from the event, and if you’d like to join me and other alumni in making a gift to the Emory Children’s Leukemia Research Fund, visit www.emory.edu/give and then type in Children’s Leukemia Research Fund in the “other designation” box.

Who knew that being philanthropic could be so fashionable?

--Cassie Young 07C, program development coordinator, Emory Annual Fund

Annemarie Poyo Furlong 90C spent her time at Celebration Emory: New York, Thursday, February 26, taking photos of pretty much everything that moved. You can see the fruits of her labor right here--a slide show of more than 50 photos on the Campaign Emory website, including many of the very happy attendees and some great shots of the Emory University Symphony Orchestra in action.

Sorry, no pictures of me at the bar.

--Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA