Williams Expedition 2009

So, it’s been a couple of weeks since the traveling Expedition rolled back into Williamstown, tired and zany to be sure, but in high spirits after such an amazing trip.  We spent a few days in Williamstown debriefing and decompressing, and then each of us eventually went our separate ways.  We’ve been working on wrapping up the details the past couple of weeks and i think, at this point, we’re nearly finished.  So, now, with the benefit of a little distance and some recuperative time spent back in New Jersey, I have a few final thoughts and impressions from the trip.

The first and most important thing we need to do is say thank you.

Thank you to everyone in the Alumni Office back in Williamstown for supporting us throughout the duration of the trip; thank you to all of the regional volunteers who helped organize this epic series of events in rapid succession around the country; thank you to all of our hosts for putting us up, showing us around your fair cities, and putting up with us and all of our loopy moods and requests to do laundry brought on by extended hours in a van with one another; and most of all, thank you to all the alums who we met out on the road.  You all were welcoming, friendly, gracious, and, of course, so interesting, and it was wonderful to have the chance to meet all of you.  Thank you!

Many of you who attended our events got to hear us on the trip talk about how one of our goals was to provide the common narrative, the connective thread with which to bind these various events and associations in different cities together.  An amazing thing about this trip, though, was seeing how, on some level, that was already done for us.  Not only do we, as Williams alums, have a shared geographic past and, in many ways, a shared college experience, but also we share many things in common about post-Williams life.  I don’t mean to suggest that all of us are doing or have done the same things, far from it.  I guess what I mean to say is that, despite the incredible diversity of paths each of us has taken, what was instead highlighted to me are the common failures and successes, the shared narrative, the things that unite us and bring us together.  Anyway, enough waxing sentimental, I just thought it was cool and, in some ways reassuring that when we heard all these different stories, we were in some ways hearing the same story.  Moving on…

Perhaps because this was the first time the alumni offiice had done anything like the Expedition and we weren’t really sure what we were going to get, or perhaps merely because they’re important questions, I spent a lot of time on the trip thinking about whether or not we were being successful and whether or not what we were doing was worthwhile.  As in most work that has a goal of “strengthening the Williams Community” and “forging ties between alums and the college and alums and one another,” it’s hard to actually measure whether your work has been a success.  However, anecdotally, the response we received while out on the road was overwhelmingly positive.  We had 21 events in 23 cities in 25 days, and while some of those cities have well-established and active regional alumni groups, some have groups that meet once or twice a year, others have groups that haven’t met in years, and still others don’t have any official regional association at all.  The last cities were some of the most fun to visit, as we brought together Williams alums who hadn’t seen a Williams sticker in years and didn’t know one another existed.  I lost count of the number of people who drove at least two hours to come to our events, including some who had never been to a regional event before, but decided to come this summer.  Also, we met at least three alums who had never, ever, been to any Williams alumni event before, including reunion; that was really exciting.  Can you quantify those connections?  I don’t know.  But I’m comfortable saying that I think we accomplished our goals and helped bring people together.

So, for now, that’s all I have to say.  It’s been great meeting everyone and writing in this space the past two months.  This trip was a pleasure and a privilege to work on.  Thanks again to everyone involved and everyone we met, and hopefully I’ll see you all again out there in the ‘real world.’

Lastly, I leave you with a few numbers Jen, Ko, Emily and I collected in the van that will help summarize our experience.

All my best,

~Jason

estimated total mileage: 5834

number of tastykakes given out on the last day: 7

cups of coffee consumed: 73

number of pages of Pride and Prejudice read: 167

number of hours of sleep averaged per night: not enough

number of cities over-nighted: 23

number of states visited: 25

number of photos taken: 1316

number of professors: 3

number of talks given: 10

oldest class met: 1950

youngest class met: 2014

number of subway sandwiches consumed: 14

number of expedition hats given away: 200

number of hours spent in the van: 116

number of spats among the team: 0

longest detour to lunch: 30 miles

number of speeding tickets: 0

number of traffic accidents: 0

number of pounds gained from sitting in a van all day:  don’t want to know

Loose estimate number of members of the Williams Family met:  circa 500

Jason Kohn '08 Uncategorized

I’m from New Jersey, a fact that I relate to everyone I meet with immense pride and satisfaction. (we don’t pump our own gas!) The responses I get after I tell people this generally range from, “I’m sorry!” to “Ah, the armpit of America!” This can get a little trying, as I love my home, but I find it in my heart to forgive people because I know on what they are normally judging The Garden State. For the vast majority of people, their experience of NJ is limited to Newark airport (notorious for construction, delays, and lost luggage) or the New Jersey Turnpike, also known as I-95 (notorious for construction, delays, and lost motorists), also known as the ugliest road I’ve ever seen. 95 is the main corridor between DC and New York, and anyone who drives between those two cities is cursed to spend at least part of their drive on this asphalt, a fact which helps explain the low regard for New Jersey among, well, almost everyone. However, despite this, I was not without a sense of homecoming when we got on 95 for the drive north from Richmond to DC. I knew we were close to the greater mid-Atlantic and a few short miles (and long long hours of traffic-laden highway) from home.

Our last three stops on the Expedition – DC, Baltimore, and Philly – were the only cities which I had been to prior to the trip. We arrived in DC in late afternoon and jen and I dropped Ko and Emily off where they were staying in Georgetown, and then drove over to Tenleytown where we were staying with our classmate and class VP, Liz Hirschhorn. Liz is a Bethesda native originally, and she went back to DC after graduating to work in a Psych lab at the NIH. She’s also a fantastic Rugby player and jen and I spent a lot of time trying to convince her to try out for the national team. Liz is one of our directed friends and classmates who makes jen and me feel even more directionless than usual.

We were eventless that first night in DC, so Liz invited over Ben Bullitt and Jeremy Doernberger, a few of the Williams ‘08 crew residing in DC. Jeremy is in law school and is planning his wedding in a year and a half with Liz Upton, another one of our classmates. Congrats you two!

The next day we took the Metro into the mall to meet up with Emily and Ko as well as Aroop Mukharji ‘09. We stayed with Aroop’s parents in Kansas City while he was in India, so it was great to see him again in DC. He just moved there to start work at a DC think tank. The five of us walked around the mall and stopped by the Washington Monument, the new World War II memorial, the Lincoln memorial, and the Vietnam Veteran’s memorial. After that walking tour it was round about lunch time, and so we met up with Becky Staiger ‘09. Becky works at the Fed and, after a series of background checks, was able to get us in to have lunch in the Fed dining room. What with her checkered past, I’m amazed jen was able to get in. That was definitely very cool, although we didn’t see Ben Bernanke while we were there.

After walking around in the oppressive humidity all afternoon, we returned to our respective chateaus to shower and put our faces on for the event. (My shoes were locked in the van and I didn’t have the keys, so I ended up wearing crocs to the event – not the height of fashion) Then we made our way over to the hotel for professor Burger’s talk.

Rob Swann ‘90, the director of off-campus programs in the Alumni Relations office, was born and raised in DC, so he came down to the capital to see his family and also to greet us at the hotel with a smile and a Williams college banner. Also greeting guests as they arrived was Drew Newman ‘04. Drew is a lawyer and the new president of the DC regional association. He just recently chaired his class’ fifth reunion and broke the all-time reunion attendance record, so now Drew is expected to break the regional event record this coming year. No pressure, Drew.

Professor Burger gave a great two-part talk to the regional group. For the first half he spoke about the beauty and virtue of mathematical thinking, using the classic “Monkeys with typewriters writing Hamlet” problem in an attempt to convince the whole audience to think like a Mathematician. Then, Ed discussed a curricular idea he’s exploring as the current Williams Gaudino Scholar and requested feedback from the audience. In an attempt to encourage students to take classes they’re interested in outside their major field, Ed wants to give students an option to take the class with the “Gaudino option” which translates into no grade on the transcript. It’s a little more complicated than that, but his talk managed generate some spirited dialogue among the 50 or so people in attendance, including the poor pre-frosh who Ed consistently called on during his talk. If you’re interested, definitely e-mail Ed and ask him about the “Gaudino Option.” I’m sure he’d love to chat about it and get some feedback.

That’s all for now. Pictures to come soon (when I get back onto the team computer) as well as Baltimore, Philly, and some closing thoughts!

Jason Kohn '08 Posts From the Van