AUP Community Weekend Unites Alumni, Parents and Friends

From Thursday, May 19, to Sunday, May 22, 2022, global explorers from across six decades reunited in Paris, alongside parents of current students and other friends of the University, for the AUP Community Weekend, the largest on-campus reunion event of the academic year. The four-day gathering, which coincided with the end of AUP’s 60th-anniversary celebrations, consisted of workshops, lectures and evening soirées designed to celebrate sixty years of our global community.

Highlights of the weekend included the 60th anniversary cocktail, which was just one of many events around the world this year marking AUP’s birthday milestone. During the cocktail, President Celeste M. Schenck and Board Chair Doris Daughney each addressed Community Weekend attendees in AUP's flagship Quai d’Orsay Learning Commons, reflecting on the University’s evolution since its founding in 1962. The “AUP Then and Now” event also explore this history, as members of AUP’s Founding Classes sat side-by-side with current students to discuss what had (and hadn’t) changed about the AUP experience over the last six decades.

Several specialized reunion events also took place as part of the weekend, including an event for former members of the Student Government Association and the first-ever on-campus meeting of Black Alumni at AUP (BAAUP), an alumni group that formed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Attendees even had the chance to relive their college years by attending classes and lectures with current and former AUP professors – from a talk on global news media with Professor Emeritus Jim Bittermann to a printmaking workshop with Professor Jonathan Shimony.

Cultural events included exclusive performances from students involved in the University’s Spring Arts Festival and tours of local Parisian monuments from Professors Emeriti Kathleen Chevalier and George Wanklyn. And what Parisian séjour would be complete without a taste of gourmet living? Alumna Carli Seaver ’08 offered wine tastings throughout the weekend, while Emily Monaco ’09 brought her knowledge to bear in her own cheese sampling workshop.

The University would like to thank all who attended this fabulous reunion event, as well as the alumni, staff and faculty members who gave their time to volunteer throughout the weekend. Here’s to the next sixty years!