Last week, as people across the country packed their bags to travel for Thanksgiving, the GW alumni community was abuzz with events on campus and elsewhere!
Alumni House Thanksgiving
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, representatives from the GW Alumni Association (GWAA) and the Office of Alumni Relations shared a Thanksgiving meal with 45 international students and alumni.
The hosts included GWAA President Jim Core, ESIA MA ’96, GWAA President-Elect Steven Frenkil, CCAS BA ’74, Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations Adrienne Rulnick and faculty member Ambassador Edward “Skip” Gnehm, ESIA BA ’66, MA ’68.
The undergraduate and graduate students represented countries around the world, including India, Iran and China.
Staff and alumni shared Thanksgiving traditions and taught the students how to draw turkey hands, while the students shared stories about their GW experiences and discussed their home countries.
After filling up on turkey and gravy, potatoes, cranberries, green beans and pumpkin pie, the students headed home with enough leftovers to last throughout the long weekend.
Athens Thanksgiving Dinner
Meanwhile, across the world, the GW Greece Alumni Network hosted a special Thanksgiving dinner for 24 alumni, friends and parents on Nov. 22 in Athens.
“Everyone had a great time and we look forward to building our GW community in Greece, “says Elena Pappas, CCAS MA ’92, the alumni leader for the Greece Network .
U.S. Alumna Hosts Dinner
Back in the U.S., alumna Nancy Striniste, CPS CERT ’06, MS ’09, invited international students to her home for Thanksgiving dinner. On Nov. 22, three international, undergraduate exchange students joined Nancy and her family for the holiday meal.
“We learned a lot from them,” says Striniste. “We compared holidays and politics and food from each of our countries. We were so happy to share our home.”
Liza Lunstroo, an exchange student from the Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands, is among the students who attended Striniste’s dinner.
“I cannot express the gratitude and the admiration I have for this family; they made us feel like we were part of the family,” Lunstroo says. “We had the most wonderful time.”
