March 2013

Dear Classmates,

It has been a long time since my last letter, but I hope everyone is doing well, wherever you may be! The month of May will mark our 4th year since graduation which, for me, is a bit scary. So much has changed on campus since we left, that it seems like a brand new (but much cooler) place. If you all haven’t been up to see the new Zankel Music Center or the new Scribner Village, they really are amazing. They have also built additional Northwoods Apartments, to accommodate the growing amount of students at Skidmore.

The physical changes are not the only great thing going on at Skidmore. Newsweek's "College Rankings 2012: 25 Happiest Schools" ranked Skidmore at #9. They are rewarding an increasing amount of people with financial aid, which allows extremely talented and motivated students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend the opportunity to go to the school that we all loved so much.
Our Skidmore degree is becoming more and more recognized around the world as an elite school that graduates the best students in the country, and it is because of the reasons listed above. When we first got into Skidmore, some people had no idea what or where that school was. Nowadays, when I say Skidmore, people automatically recognize the name and reputation, and that visibility will help us on personal and professional levels for years to come.

As part of Skidmore’s ongoing effort to provide greater support to recent graduates and alumni in their career development and transitions, the Career Development Center welcomes Jenna Hartwell as the new Associate Director of Alumni Career Development. In this role, Jenna provides individual career counseling to Skidmore graduates and works with alumni to create networking connections for current students and alums. She also coordinates regional, off-campus career development events for alumni. Alumni interested in working with Jenna may contact her by calling the Career Development Center at (518) 580-5790.

I know you hear this all the time, but every dollar to the school matters. It is contributions from alumni like ourselves that allow the school to grow at such a fast pace, that allow programs and buildings to be built at the speed that they are.  Now is a perfect time to give back. Give a dollar or one hundred, give whatever you can, but give something. I, for one, owe so much to Skidmore for the friends I made and the fun that I had there. I want the future generations of Skidmore students to be able to have the same great time that we did. Watch for a letter from David Usiak, our class fund chair in the near future.

As always, good luck with everything and hope to see you all in the near future!

     Ray

Raymond A. Sultan
President