Strangers gathered in an Evanston home on Saturday night for a home-cooked meal and Northwestern-related conversation.
The event was the first of 20 dinners in a series called “Dinner with 12 Strangers,” hosted by Northwestern Class Alliance to unite NU students, faculty and alumni.
“One of NCA’s goals is to bridge the gap between students and alumni, and this event is one way to do that,” said NCA President Stephanie Yang, a Weinberg junior. “Everyone gets to meet new people and people who went to NU before them.”
NCA leaders got the idea for alumni dinners after hearing about a similar activity at another university. Alumni, students and faculty responded positively to the idea and a student sign-up was posted on the NCA Web site and advertised on the HereAndNow Web site. Five dinners took place this weekend and another fifteen are scheduled for mid-November .
Alumna Carolyn Krulee, who graduated from the School of Education in 1969, hosted the first dinner Saturday evening at her Evanston home.
Krulee, a member of the committee that planned the event, said she volunteered to host the evening to provide students, faculty and alumni the opportunity to mingle with each other. She said that she was happy with the dinner and pleased with the group’s diversity.
“(There was) a nice mixture of students present, from freshmen to seniors from all majors and different ethnic backgrounds,” Krulee said.
Students who attended Saturday’s dinner said the evening was different than they had expected.
“I had imagined there would be a chance for a possibly awkward situation,” said Lindsay Dean, a Weinberg junior. Dean said she learned about the dinner from her uncle, who is the president of the Alumni Association. She signed up online when she saw a flyer in her dorm advertising the event.
“I probably wouldn’t have signed up if he hadn’t recommended it,” she said.
Weinberg sophomore Bryan Crowe, another dinner guest, said he was apprehensive at the beginning of the night but was surprised by how well the evening went. He added that Krulee played an integral part in preventing awkwardness.
“The alumni host (Krulee) had the living room as a giant circle and she introduced herself and had everyone do the same,” Crowe said. “By the time we sat down for dinner, we had done all the introductions and knew a little about each other.”
Yang said each dinner would be different because the parties’ student-to-alumni ratio will vary, as will the dining setup.
“Some alumni cook, some cater, some take the students to a restaurant,” Yang said. “Part of the fun is not knowing anyone or anything about what’s going on.”
Dean said the best part of the dinner was making connections with other students, faculty and alumni whom she would not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
Yang said NCA was looking to turn the dinner into an annual tradition if everything went well. She added that NCA may plan for more dinners during Winter and Spring Quarters if students continue to respond positively.
Students can sign up for the November dinners on the NCA Web site.
Reach Marcy Miranda at [email protected].
