Free food, pets to play with, networking with alumni and free transportation. All these perks are part of the adventure with the fifth annual Past and Present Dinner on Nov. 10.
“Students come back and say things like, ‘I got to pet a cat for an hour and it was awesome,’” said Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Rachel Burbank. “There’s been such amazing feedback.”
This year there are nine hosts, all from Forest Grove, will be opening their houses to Pacific students and cooking them dinner. This year alumni have the option to take students out to dinner.
Burbank, a 2009 graduate from Pacific, has been organizing the event for the first time.
The dinner is a partnership between Students, Today Alumni Tomorrow and Alumni Relations.
President of STAT Evan Schreurs is advertising by tabling every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the U.C.
“The biggest struggle in the past has been not enough students sign up,” said Burbank. “Why students aren’t signing up for a free dinner? I really don’t know.”
Currently there are only about 15 students signed up.
But Burbank expects that to increase, as the dinner is still two weeks away.
Alumni are welcome to request that the students they host have a specific affiliation, like NHOH or football for example.
Burbank said they try to pair alumni and students with the same Greek affiliation as well.
And it’s easy to connect with alumni because STAT will provide transportation if students cannot drive themselves.
All the alumni office asks is that attendees of the dinner write a thank you note to their hosts.
For more information or to sign up for a free meal from an alumnus, email alumni@pacificu.edu.
“It’s not high maintenance, it’s casual,” said Burbank. “It’s nice to be out of the college bubble for a while.”
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