Past, present and even future blue devils gathered yesterday in the middle of Chapel Drive to attend the Forever Duke Block Party, which was hosted by the Duke Alumni Association. After students recovered from the bittersweet shock of the first day of classes, Dukies of all ages were excited for a celebration on the wooded lawn of the Forlines House full of free food and drinks, class directories and free T-shirts—all with a backdrop of live music. The Chronicle’s Matt Gordon asked some of the attendees to comment on their favorite aspects of Forever Duke and their experiences with the Duke Alumni Association and the University in general.
“It’s time to, you know, spend time and meet with alumni and spend time as a school. It’s a good start to the year.” —Erica Kim, freshman
“I’ve seen different groups of people in different places, but I figured there would be friends here who I haven’t seen the last few days since I’ve gotten here.” —Emily Gall, sophomore
“We’re trying to revitalize [Black Student Alliance] this year and its presence on campus. That really means we’re trying to become more visible in more aspects of the University. This is an event that unites people from these various communities at Duke. Pretty much, we thought it would be important and effective to connect with people at such an event.” —Nana Asante, junior, BSA president
“I have the opportunity to create the things that I wish I had seen as a student.... We wanted to create an event that is a University-wide celebration to kick off the year because the freshmen have a lot of their own orientation programs.... It’s a very family-friendly, fun environment.” —Kim Hanauer ’02, director of young alumni and student programs for the DAA
“Before moving back to the area, I was living in Germany and then London. That’s what you get with a Duke degree.” —David Hoffman, Law ’93
“Free food.” —Cindy Choi, freshman
“Free food.” —Katie Baker, freshman
“Free food, but the free food was not as good as I expected.” —Max Jin, freshman
“Trying to come out, show our face, say, ‘Hi,’ show people that we’re friendly people, regular students, so we want to be amongst our peers.” —Nolan Smith, senior
“Today was the first day of class, and this is a fun event to come to. Some food, some drinks, some conversation.” —Tyler Thornton, freshman
“I got the e-mail invitation and I wanted to catch up with [freshman Eason Abbott], my son, and his friends, both new and some of his former classmates.” —Mike Abbott, Fuqua ’83
“It wasn’t the beer; it was the beer steins. Something to remember Duke by.” —Loie Davis, senior
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