{"id":55284,"date":"2012-06-07T12:47:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=55284"},"modified":"2024-07-01T16:36:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T20:36:29","slug":"alumni-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2012\/06\/07\/alumni-children\/","title":{"rendered":"For alumni children, graduation is a story with a new ending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Asked why he chose to attend Bates, Robert Long \u201979 remembers looking at schools that would \u201ckeep open a variety of paths.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_55286\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/web_100527_Commencement_2089.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-55286\" class=\"size-large wp-image-55286\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/web_100527_Commencement_2089-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/web_100527_Commencement_2089-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/web_100527_Commencement_2089-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/web_100527_Commencement_2089.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-55286\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Commencement morning, Erica Long &#039;12 is flanked by parents Elizabeth Pohl &#039;80 and Robert Long &#039;79<\/p><\/div>\n<p>His daughter Erica, Class of 2012, unwittingly echoes her father as she describes her college search. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go down one direct path yet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to try out some new things, and the idea of a liberal arts school \u2014 I saw that as an opportunity to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The college&#8217;s alumni database counts 12 members of the Class of 2012 who have a Bates alumni parent. That number rapidly grows when alumni grandparents, siblings and other Bates relatives are included, as evidenced by the big turnout in Perry Atrium for a photograph on the day before Commencement 2012.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li>Related story: Bates debuts the <a title=\"Alumni Legacy Program\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/legacy\"><strong>Alumni Admission Legacy Program<\/strong>, <\/a>June 10-11.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>For example, grad Richard Sullivan III &#8217;12 was joined by grandparents Edith Lysaght Sullivan &#8217;56 and Richard Sullivan Sr. &#8217;57, as well as his father Richard Sullivan Jr. &#8217;81. The four Sullivans are among 17 family members to attend Bates.<\/p>\n<p>And Devon Bonney&#8217;s Bates family includes siblings Erin &#8217;09 and Garrett &#8217;15, grandfather Wes &#8217;50, aunt Melissa Bonney Kane &#8217;81, and parents Mike &#8217;80 and Alison Grott Bonney &#8217;80.<\/p>\n<p>With some prodding, Erica Long acknowledges other commonalities between her parents\u2019 experiences and hers.<\/p>\n<p>For example, she and her father are both English majors, and both worked at WRBC, the college radio station. In 2010, Robert spoke at the Parents &amp; Family Weekend interfaith service, while Erica has been active in the Multifaith Chaplaincy and addressed her peers at Baccalaureate during Commencement weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Erica and her mother, Betsy Pohl \u201980, share their respective stories of Hedge Hall, making a poignant connection across 30 years of Bates history.<\/p>\n<p>However, Erica insists that her parents never pushed her to apply to Bates.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_55288\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/sullivans-hlb-a0080919.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-55288\" class=\"size-large wp-image-55288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/sullivans-hlb-a0080919-600x428.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/sullivans-hlb-a0080919-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/sullivans-hlb-a0080919-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/sullivans-hlb-a0080919.jpg 1610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-55288\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Sullivan III &#039;12 is joined by grandparents Edith Lysaght Sullivan &#039;56 and Richard Sullivan Sr. &#039;57 and father Richard Sullivan Jr. &#039;81. They represent four of 17 family members to attend Bates.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Likewise, Kristy Andrews \u201912 acknowledges that while her family history was influential \u2014 she and her brother, Mark Andrews \u201909, are fourth-generation Batesies \u2014 it was never the deciding factor.<\/p>\n<p>Her mother, Cindy Holmes Andrews \u201974, agrees that she never pressured but hoped her children \u201cwould just think about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While parents and children both cite Bates\u2019 smallness, its academic rigor and the enduring value of the liberal arts education among the school\u2019s attractions, some things do look different today.<\/p>\n<p>The college has undergone considerable physical changes while the classroom experience continues to evolve thanks to emerging technologies that make knowledge more immediately accessible and shareable.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Chu \u201980, father of Christopher Chu \u201912, admires Bates\u2019 ability to keep faith with its founding principles while keeping \u201ccurrent with the world today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All parents agree that the food is vastly better now, too.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;A good, welcoming, regular-folks feel to it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But it\u2019s Bates\u2019 palpable sense of community that, generation to generation, makes it stand out. For Robert and Betsy, Bates was an elite school without being elitist; Betsy describes it fondly as \u201ca school with a conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just has a good, welcoming, regular-folks feel to it that I didn\u2019t get at any other place,\u201d says Robert.<\/p>\n<p>He borrows Erica\u2019s term \u201cBates vibe\u201d to describe the openness and accessibility that persists today.<\/p>\n<p>That vibe has an even stronger resonance now.<\/p>\n<p>Robert recalls a college friend who came out after graduation. As was true in most of U.S. society at the time, \u201cthe environment at Bates at the time made it unthinkable for him to reveal his true self\u201d as a student, he says.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Bates is noted<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/athletics\/2012\/05\/01\/bates-named-a-top-lgbt-friendly-collegiate-athletic-program\/\"> nationally for supporting orientation equality<\/a><\/strong> on the campus and in the community. \u201cErica\u2019s gay friends can be their full and true selves on campus \u2014 and be celebrated for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Erica and Kristy agree that Bates was the best choice for them, and their experience has been filled with its share of opportunities and surprises.<\/p>\n<p>For Erica, the fact that her parents are alumni didn\u2019t shape her understanding of Bates so much as Bates shaped her understanding of her parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I have this thing in common with my parents where at this same age in our lives we lived in this same place,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Crossing the stage at Commencement, she joined her parents in yet another role: Bates graduate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just stunning to me,\u201d Betsy says. \u201cI feel like I just took her there for her first day, and that four years just went by so amazingly fast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKind of like it did when I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_55285\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/2012-legacy-hlb-a0080892.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-55285\" class=\"size-large wp-image-55285\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/2012-legacy-hlb-a0080892-600x428.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/2012-legacy-hlb-a0080892-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/2012-legacy-hlb-a0080892-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2012\/05\/2012-legacy-hlb-a0080892.jpg 1610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-55285\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Front, from left: Sara Vigne &#039;12, Alison Cornforth &#039;12, Elizabeth Pohl &#039;80, Erica Long &#039;12, Caitlyn DeFiore &#039;12, Donna Avery &#039;82, Elizabeth Kalperis Chu &#039;80, CJ Chu &#039;12, Michael Chu &#039;80, Devon Bonney &#039;12; second row: Palo Peirce IV &#039;12, Meaghan Doyle &#039;12, Kristy Andrews &#039;12, Madeleine West &#039;04, Jeffrey Roy &#039;83, Alicia Roy &#039;12, Erin Bonney &#039;09, Alison Grott Bonney &#039;80; third row, Palo Peirce III &#039;82, Julie Gleason Doyle &#039;86, Cindy Holmes Andrews &#039;74, W. Jeffrey Helm &#039;76, Steven Imig &#039;02, Edith Lysaght Sullivan &#039;56, Sarah Cleary &#039;12, John Cleary &#039;80, Wes Bonney &#039;50, Mike Bonney &#039;80; fourth row: Andy Doyle &#039;86, Mark Andrews &#039;09, Kevin Helm &#039;12, Elliott West &#039;12, Richard Sullivan III &#039;12, Richard Sullivan Sr. &#039;57, Richard Sulllivan Jr. &#039;81, Garret Bonney &#039;15.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At Commencement, alumni and their graduating children talk about the ever-stronger &#8220;Bates vibe.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":55286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,7,11009],"tags":[1444,2329,10831,165,6111],"class_list":["post-55284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-alumni","category-the-college","tag-bates-history","tag-class-of-2012","tag-commencement","tag-history","tag-multifaith-chaplaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55284"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55301,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284\/revisions\/55301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}