Football’s 35-0 Victory, “The Big Roll”: Highlights of 2017 Homecoming/Family Weekend

On Nov. 4 during Homecoming/Family Weekend, more than 5,000 Cardinal football fans cheered Wesleyan to a 35–0 victory over Little Three archrival Williams College.

Throughout the three-day event, parents, alumni, students, families and friends also attended tailgating events, campus tours, 20 WESeminars, the 25th Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium, the 7th Annual Stone A Cappella Concert, gallery exhibits, a family swim, multiple dinners and receptions and much more.

Kate Quigley Lynch ’82, P’17, ’19, assistant director of The Wesleyan Fund for University Relations, attended HCFW events as a Wes alumna, parent and staff member with her husband, Christopher Lynch ’81. In addition to co-organizing the 50th Reunion Planning meeting, Quigley Lynch and members of her family attended the President’s Reception honoring leadership donors and volunteers; the Alumni Association tailgate; and a WESeminar on the Evolution of the Real Estate Industry, led by Matt Winn ’92 and Marshall Brozost ’89.

“It was a fantastic weekend, having all the elements that make Wesleyan special—WESeminars, the students and their families, lively conversations, and, of course, so many returning alumni and sunshine to boot. I also enjoyed seeing many of my daughter’s (Colleen Lynch ’17) friends stop by to fill me on their adventures after Wes,” Lynch said. “And, what better highlight to the weekend than the decisive win over Williams?! Go Wes!”

Living locally, Jeremy Schwartz P’19 and Dr. Merle Potchinsky P’19 of Willimantic, Conn., have traditionally turned HCFW into a “mini-vacation” with their daughter, Arielle Schwartz ’19.

“Now in her junior year, as Arielle accumulates more and more responsibilities, particularly stage managing the senior dance show, we worried that we’d barely see her and that we had made a mistake in coming, but as it turns out, we had a great time,” Jeremy Schwartz said.

The proud parents visited their daughter at the Wesleyan Summer Experience Grants poster session, where Arielle and fellow students shared their grant-funded summer experiences ranging from scientific research to business internships to founding nonprofits in Africa. They also attended a WESeminar titled “Unpacked: Refugee Baggage;” a senior dance concert; the Stone Family A Cappella concert and a Shabbat dinner and participated in “The Big Roll” attempt at a Guinness World Record.

The highlight of the weekend, Schwartz explained, was seeing a dance that Arielle is choreographing for an upcoming winter dance concert. “We were delighted by the camaraderie of the group and were amazed by the skill of the dancers, who could turn Arielle’s fairly open-ended suggestions into beautiful movement and who seemed to learn combinations instantaneously,” Schwartz recalled. “And, of course, we were proud of our daughter’s collaborative leadership and developing artistic vision. I allowed myself to indulge in some nostalgic recollection of the time Arielle’s little ‘performance’ on a family vacation a dozen years ago made me think, ‘Wait, there‘s some special artistic talent and drive here, not just a little girl who likes to prance around.’ I imagined the three moms in the room thinking similarly about their daughters. Though it will embarrass Arielle to say it, it made me a little teary-eyed.”

Photos of HCFW events are below: (Photos by Olivia Drake, Tom Dzimian, Rebecca Goldfarb Terry ’19, Sami Jensen and TJ Dowling). View the entire 2017 HCFW photo gallery on Wesleyan Flickr.