2008 Woodie Awards
Carry The Colgate Torch
Alumni Column
Vikki Anderson Patacca '86
Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Commentary
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Imagine yourself 20 years from now - a proud Colgate alumnus/a, perhaps married, perhaps the mother or father of adolescent kids. I know it's a scary thought to think of yourself as a middle-aged parent when today your primary worries include what exams you have to cram for or what you are going to wear to the fraternity party tonight. Fast forward 20 years. Imagine yourself in my shoes, a stay-at-home busy mom of two young daughters who are excited to make their first trip to their mother's alma mater - the hallowed gates of Colgate University.
My older daughter, age 10, having met many current Colgate students who spent their summers interning in Cleveland through the Summer on the Cuyahoga program, has started to ask questions like "What's college really like?" and "What's so special about Colgate?" She knows that Mom spends a lot of time volunteering for Colgate: planning events for these summer interns, as well as Cleveland alumni, and leaving home three times a year to spend the weekend at Colgate for Alumni Board meetings. But she wants to get more in depth. She wants to know how I spent my four years at Colgate and why is it that I love the school the way I do. That's why I'm packing the SUV and road-tripping to Colgate for a mother-daughter bonding weekend. It leaves me with the task, though, of determining how to share my beloved alma mater with my daughters - trying to capture the "spirit that is Colgate" in less than 48 hours.
Where should I take them first - the Student Activities Office (now known as the Center for Leadership and Student Involvement) where I worked 20 hours a week planning Pub events and helping club leaders? Or how about Lawrence Hall, where I struggled almost daily through my mathematical economics classes? What about Bryan Complex, where I spent countless late nights hanging with my friends and trying to find time for a quick Sunday afternoon nap? Should I forgo the trip down Broad Street to my favorite fraternity haunts, punctuated by behavior one might not want to share with an impressionable pre-teen daughter?
My older daughter, age 10, having met many current Colgate students who spent their summers interning in Cleveland through the Summer on the Cuyahoga program, has started to ask questions like "What's college really like?" and "What's so special about Colgate?" She knows that Mom spends a lot of time volunteering for Colgate: planning events for these summer interns, as well as Cleveland alumni, and leaving home three times a year to spend the weekend at Colgate for Alumni Board meetings. But she wants to get more in depth. She wants to know how I spent my four years at Colgate and why is it that I love the school the way I do. That's why I'm packing the SUV and road-tripping to Colgate for a mother-daughter bonding weekend. It leaves me with the task, though, of determining how to share my beloved alma mater with my daughters - trying to capture the "spirit that is Colgate" in less than 48 hours.
Where should I take them first - the Student Activities Office (now known as the Center for Leadership and Student Involvement) where I worked 20 hours a week planning Pub events and helping club leaders? Or how about Lawrence Hall, where I struggled almost daily through my mathematical economics classes? What about Bryan Complex, where I spent countless late nights hanging with my friends and trying to find time for a quick Sunday afternoon nap? Should I forgo the trip down Broad Street to my favorite fraternity haunts, punctuated by behavior one might not want to share with an impressionable pre-teen daughter?