By Dana R. Davies, Vice President for Enrollment Management

Many, many thanks to all for a beautiful Countdown on Saturday. The weather turned as if on cue, delivering a glorious sunny and cool spring day. The campus shined, thanks to endless hours of work by Tom Macchi, Mike Saloma and their crews. Our guests went on tour led by our student ambassadors, attended academic and informational sessions led by our faculty and administrators, and met with Student Affairs team members. Special thanks to Jeff Shultz, who facilitated a new session on the three-year accelerated degree programs. The financial aid team members met in personal sessions with dozens of families. We had several athletic teams playing home games, including women’s lacrosse on the quad, thanks to careful planning by Shirley Liddle and the coaches.

This year we had great participation from current students and alumni presenters. Liesl Reimann ’11 spoke at our Honors and Presidential Scholars Breakfast. Karen Jessup ’10 and Brian Eckenrode ’97,’99M.P.T. spoke at the Scholarship Breakfast. At our Scholarship Lunch, Stephen Parfitt ’07 and Daniel Phillips ’11 welcomed the students admitted for this fall. Many more alumni, current students of every major and many graduate programs, student ambassadors, honors students and First Year Study Abroad Experience (FYSAE) mentors participated in academic and other sessions. Josh Stern, Dean of Students, spoke eloquently at the Scholarship Luncheon as well as facilitated a standing room only parents session, hosted by current students’ parents.

This year we also had our second Honors and Presidential Scholars Breakfast and our first FYSAE and Transfer luncheons to personalize the Countdown experience for students. The event planning and coordination of three simultaneous breakfasts and the three simultaneous luncheons, as well as all the sessions and the tracks runs so smoothly thanks to the extraordinary talents of Kathy Beardsley and Kristy Syrek in Enrollment Management, with a lot of help from facilities, as well as Sara Goodwin and Jen Rodolfo from Parkhurst Dining Services with their catering team. Countdown 2010 also had members of the soccer teams serving our families in the Dining Hall.

It takes a University to showcase all the benefits of becoming an Arcadian, and the Arcadian community really stepped up this year and did a phenomenal job!