Shout It Out Loud

Last month, I had the distinct pleasure of lunching with three fantastic Park alumnae, Amanda, Michelle, and Sharna, in New York. We spent a great deal of our time discussing ways to make the Park community, and in particular, the alumni, more closely connected. Cross Currents, which contains alumni notes, is now a yearly publication, and generating more printed publications is not the answer to this question.

It was clear during our conversation that we all know of noteworthy alumni accomplishments and they are spread by word of mouth or keyboard. In some instances, the school publishes these news items, but in many other cases, we in Brooklandville are completely unaware of the story.

We also are the product of a community that, for the most part, has a sense of shyness around self-promotion, but the counter-balance to that is that we also take great pride in the achievements of Park graduates. In a time when news is an instant commodity, we are planning on sending out more messages about Park alumni from a host of applications that I can barely name, let alone understand, including Facebook, Twitter, and www.parkschool.net.

The catch, if you want to call it that, is that we now need you to share your news with us. We’ll be expanding our means of collecting news, but you’ll still be the first to know, so please include us on your list of friends with whom you share your news. The best way to send us your news is to direct it to our Alumni Coordinator Pailin Gaither at pgaither@parkschool.net or at 410-339-4114. This new world of openly showing pride in alumni accomplishments will help us stay in closer contact with each other, and it will have a very real benefit to Park. Prospective families often inquire about ‘outcomes’ of Park students. Well, our outcomes are pretty terrific so why not share a little more than we have in the past? As Dizzy Dean might have once said, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”