Back Together on Campus for Alumni Weekend 2023

Once students graduate from AUP, they remain members of our worldwide community for life.  Every year, in celebration of this enduring connection, the Office of Communications and Outreach welcomes alumni and former students back to campus for AUP’s Alumni Weekend, a reunion celebration over two days in May consisting of campus tours, networking events, museum visits and social events.

Over 50 alumni registered to return to AUP in 2023 to relive their student days in the City of Light. Highlights of the weekend included the AUP tradition of a guided museum tour; in this instance, Professor Jonathan Shimony of the Department of Art History and Fine Arts took alumni to the Musée Rodin to discover the works of one of France’s great sculptors in situ.

Alumni also had a chance to meet Professor Elena Berg, Director of the Joy and Edward Frieman Environmental Science Center, who presented her research on the luxury bottled water industry. As well as being an Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Berg is a certified water sommelier. She led alumni in a tasting of fine mineral waters, while discussing the role water enthusiasts can play in creating sustainable water management practices in the future.

The Office of Communications and Outreach also teamed up with the Center for Academic, Career and Experiential Advising to offer a speed-networking event for students and alumni as part of the weekend for the first time. More than 25 students from the graduating class of 2023 joined the attending alumni for a careers-focused meet-and-greet. It was also an opportunity for students to get a taste of what AUP’s alumni services have to offer them and to start building enduring connections with other alumni living and working in more than 145 countries worldwide.

A special faculty, staff and alumni panel presented, through multiple community perspectives, the important topic of artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and their impact on the global liberal arts. Professors Claudia Roda, Director of the MSc in Human Rights and Data Science, and Geoffrey Gilbert, Director of the Teaching and Learning Center, were joined by Mary Bremond of the ACE Center and alumnus Sam Yehya ’11, Partner at Six, a technology and professional services consulting firm, for a one-off panel debate.

Social events included lunch in AUP’s own AMEX Café; the Alumni Welcome Cocktail, attended by AUP President Sonya Stephens; and an AUP favorite, the Alumni Boat Party, hosted in Le Gustave floating restaurant, right next to the Eiffel Tower. For those Classes who were celebrating milestone anniversaries, special reunion dinners took place, organized by Class representatives, in restaurants across AUP’s home, Paris’s 7th arrondissement.

Alumni Weekend takes place annually, and next year’s event will take place on April 25–27, 2024.  Other alumni events take place all over the world throughout the year; to learn about upcoming events and to be sure not to miss any future opportunities, follow AUP Alumni Affairs on LinkedIn.