Rice alumni visit for homecoming weekend

By Belinda Zhu and Viola Hsia     11/5/24 11:06pm

Rice Alumni Weekend took place from Nov. 1-2. Over 48 hours, alumni gathered for events across campus, including a tailgate party, a community business fair and a town hall led by university president Reggie DesRoches. 

According to James Hurley, the associate vice president of development and alumni relations, this year’s event saw a 30% increase in attendance from 2023. There were over 2,000 guests in attendance, he said.

“Of particular importance this year was innovation and adding new opportunities for alumni to engage with Rice,” Hurley wrote in an email to the Thresher. “This resulted in launching the first ever ‘Alumni Run’ at Alumni Weekend, where a number of alumni, the ARA Board President David Mansouri ’07 and President DesRoches ran an outer loop of Rice.”

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According to April Cole, director of alumni relations, the event was successful despite rain delays for the homecoming football game.

“People came from all over, not just the country, but the world, and [I] heard multiple pieces of feedback, where people were making connections and having fun, seeing old friends and trying new things,” Cole said. “I’m feeling really, really good about it, and it was definitely a success and a team effort for sure.”

The President’s Town Hall started off by presenting the 2024 Builders Award, which recognizes alumni who have made significant contributions to Rice since graduating, to recipients Tim Harrison ‘20 and Vivas Kumar ‘14.  

President Reggie DesRoches spoke about the university’s new 10-year strategic plan entitled “Momentous.” 

“We will have a lot of new programs and buildings but fundamentally the people will be what changes Rice,” DesRoches said during the town hall. “We are just hiring exceptional talent. We just hired the number one material scientist in the world from Yale starting January 2025.”

John Perkins ‘74 said he liked that the plan focused on the people of the Rice community.

“[DesRoches] emphasized the upbuilding of the people, the teachers, the students, especially the graduate students and providing the infrastructure to support them,” Perkins said.

Michael Ross ‘70 said that he came from California to attend the alumni weekend so that he could reconnect with old friends.

“A lot of the times I don’t remember which class my friends were in,” Ross said. “They could’ve been a year or two earlier or later. I’ve met people just walking around that I knew who were from class of 69, 71 and 72. They weren’t in my class and I would’ve missed them if I didn’t come some years.”

Gabriella Buba ‘16, who graduated from Rice with a degree in chemical engineering, was one of the eleven vendors present at the Alumni Weekend community market. She said coming back to sell her debut novel proves that any Rice student can pursue something creative.

“Everyone treats the engineers like we can’t do anything creative,” Buba said. “So I like to come back and be like, ‘No, we’re creative too. Look, we make things, right?’”

David Ronn ‘83 had a booth at the market for his cyber security business, Zecurity. He said he hopes that current Rice students take advantage of opportunities, especially those that seem outside their fields.

“Life’s not a straight line. Did I figure out that I was going to be doing what I’m doing now? No way,” Ronn said. “There are opportunities that come up, and it’s important to be able to spot those opportunities and decide what’s right for you. Use your Rice education, engage your brain and follow whatever path comes along.”

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