October 20, 2021
Hello, Friends,
I was pleased to see many alumni and alumnae at our Reunion earlier this month. We were happy to welcome you back to campus for a visit with classmates and friends. After having to cancel last year’s Reunion, it was wonderful to see so many of you gathered together to share memories and create more good times. Photos from Reunion can be found HERE.
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Reunion weekend videos available for viewing
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We need your input
We hope you will take a moment to take our three-question Reunion survey – whether you attended this year or not – to give us some feedback about the time of year you prefer for this annual event. You can find the survey here.
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Homecoming
We were delighted to have Jim ’52 and Cindy Caird join us on October 9 for the annual Caird Classic held at Homecoming. During the halftime ceremony, alumni and alumnae attending the game joined us for the above photo on Caird Field. Thank you to the Alumnae and Alumni Associations for their support of Homecoming. It was great to see so many come back for the festivities!
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Positive Education Webinar
Dr. Seligman is the Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the Penn Department of Psychology. He is a leading authority in Positive Psychology, resilience, learned helplessness, depression, optimism, and pessimism. He is also a recognized authority on interventions that prevent depression and build strengths and well-being. He has written more than 350 scholarly publications and 30 books. Pictured with Dr. Seligman is Head of School Chris Lauricella, Dr. Doug North ’58, and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Scott Milliken.
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Alumni/ae Speaker Series on entrepreneurship coming soon
This Monday, October 25, we will kick off the first session of this year’s Alumni/ae Speaker Series. The focus will be entrepreneurship and will feature Gregg George ’87, Nancy Wekselbaum ’69, Trustee, and Sam McHugh ’95.
Gregg is the founder and a managing director with Crescent Grove Advisors, headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois. The firm has a focus on the personal financial affairs of C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, and privately held business owners and manages more than $4.2 billion in client assets for 200-plus families all over the country. Gregg is also president of the Cedar Street Charitable Foundation and has served on many non-profit boards.
Nancy is the owner of The Gracious Gourmet, a line of award-winning condiments distributed to national chains, independent gourmet food retailers, and restaurant franchises. Before starting the company, she worked with her late husband and built the iconic Manhattan retailer Gracious Home; she also worked in corporate America in strategic planning roles and on Wall Street as a financial analyst. Nancy is a member of The Albany Academies Board of Trustees
Sam, who will serve as both a panelist and the discussion moderator, is a senior sales executive at Open Systems, a cloud and cybersecurity company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Over the past 20 years, he has been a successful entrepreneur working at and helping launch several startup companies, and he continues to advise startup executives in addition to his work with Open Systems.
This popular series provides our students with amazing opportunities to learn from alumni and alumnae about the many careers they can pursue. If you are interested in joining us on October 25 at 2:20 p.m., you can join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Android device:
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AAG Girls Varsity Golf Team wins the championship
The Albany Academy for Girls Varsity Golf Team won the Section 2 championship! All five team members who competed in the tournament qualified for States (only nine from the entire section qualify). This win follows a third consecutive, undefeated regular season for the team. Congratulations to the entire team and Coach Sarah Adamowski (also a member of the Institutional Advancement team) on two incredible wins!
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Alumni added to Capital Region Football Hall of Fame
Bob Higgins ‘77 and David Holloway ‘02 will be inducted into the Capital Region Football Hall of Fame Class of 2021, the 11th class of former Section 2 greats, on Saturday, November 20 at The Desmond Hotel in Colonie. The Hall of Fame was established in 2010 with the mission of honoring great players and coaches, and those who have promoted football in the Capital Region. Bob was a high school All-American at The Albany Academy and earned a spot on the Dartmouth College football team, only to suffer a career-ending injury. After football, he earned a medical degree and became the first African-American surgeon-in-chief and director of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospitals. David was a four-year varsity starter at The Albany Academy, offensive player of the year as a senior, and defensive player of the year as a junior. He went on to be a three-year starter at the University of Maryland and to play for four NFL teams between 2007 and 2009. Please join us in congratulating Bob and David on this outstanding recognition!
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Admissions Open House Coming Up
If you know of someone who might be considering The Albany Academies for their child or children, please let them know about our upcoming Admissions Open House on Sunday, November 7 from 1 to 3 p.m. We’d love to provide them with a tour of our campus and share the benefits of joining the Academies community. A link to register for the event is below. If you are interested in volunteering for the event, please send me an email. Register here for the Open House.
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Raymond (Mayo) Castellani ’52 dies
One of the most unusual and admirable careers of an Albany Academies graduate ended on October 18 when Raymond (Mayo) Castellani ’52 died at his home in Granada Hills, California. Ray devoted the last half of his adult life to feeding and befriending the residents of LA’s Skid Row. In 2012, he and his volunteer crew served their one-millionth meal there. For his humanitarian efforts, Ray earned recognition from two Presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Each of them invited Ray to the White House to receive the President’s Service Award, the country's highest volunteer honor. In 1997, Ray received the Academy’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service for “wrapping your message of respect, dignity, and caring in with brown-bagged sandwiches and delivering them to individuals caught in human desperation and urban decay.” Ray was 88 years old. We send our sincere condolences to his friends and family.
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Thank you for your support and enjoy your weekend!
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Ann Wendth
Chief Advancement Officer
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