Alumnae return often to Chapin to share their life experiences with current students, and Thursday, January 5 — College Alumnae Day and the annual Alumnae Cultural Awareness Program (ACAP) open meeting — was no exception.
As part of College Alumnae Day, 18 Chapin alumnae who are currently in college spoke to Upper School students about what to expect or, in some cases, what not to expect, of academic life after Chapin. The alumnae answered questions from the audience about everything from sports to food to homework.
Maude Navarre ’10, who attends Princeton University, also spoke to Class 4 students about the summer that she worked on an archaeological dig in Hell Creek, Montana, with the renowned paleontologist Jack Horner. Maude was a sophomore at Chapin at the time, and went on the dig with classmates Elisabeth Fouhey ’10 and Louise Johnson ’10. The girls had approached Mr. Horner about working with him after he delivered a presentation at Chapin.
The Class 4 students, who recently visited the American Museum of Natural History’s dinosaur collection, listened eagerly as Maude described what it was like to camp in Hell Creek for two weeks and spend her days sifting and digging through dirt in the hopes of locating fossils.
“It’s tedious work,” Maude said. “But if you find something, it’s really cool,” she added. She and her classmates did find something: the dorsal rib bone of a juvenile triceratops, which turned out to belong to the third smallest triceratops ever found.
Some of the girls who visited Chapin for College Alumnae Day also stayed for the Alumnae Cultural Awareness Program’s annual open meeting. The alumnae were joined by members of both Chapin’s Cultural Awareness Program (CAP) and Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA). The meeting was an opportunity to network with fellow alumnae, meet current students, hold a group discussion and learn about some diversity efforts at Chapin over the past year.
Please click here to see photos from the events.