My first Publication 1926874721_Alumni_Magazine_June_2010 | Page 24

Issue 3, June 2010
Alumni Meeting
in New York City
Message from Nick Mazing ’97,
the alumni representative on the ACS Board of Trustees
Dear Alumni:
Following our October meeting at
Dr. Roger Whitaker’s house in the
Washington, DC, area, we had our
spring alumni meeting in New York City
(NYC) on Saturday, March 27. Both the
venue and the menu should be familiar
to people who attended in prior years:
brunch at Amsterdam Café on the Upper
West Side.
Every
post-reopening
graduating
class except for ‘99 had at least one
representative for a total of 27 alumni.
As usual, there were several people
working on their undergraduate, Master’s
or PhD degrees. A most welcome and
unexpected guest was Elena Hristova
‘07, who is studying architecture at
University of Bath in the UK, but is
doing an internship at Richard Meier
and Partners, a NY architectural firm
known for the design of the acclaimed
Getty Center in Los Angeles. There were
also several people working in the NYC
area, as well as several people who are in
the job market. The financial crisis has
certainly taken its toll, with the added
complication of work visas for most.
As you’d expect, everyone has a fighting
spirit and is utilizing the school’s network
to the extent possible to find the next
step in their professional or educational
careers. 
Bill Williams, the Chairman of the
Board, gave an update on several topics,
followed by a lively Q&A session. First
Bill discussed the leadership transition at
the school. As I think most of you know,
Mr. Cangiano is leaving ACS to become
the head of Shady Side Academy, a
prestigious private K-12 school in
Pittsburgh, PA. The decision was dictated
by Tom’s family needs: with their oldest
child approaching high school age, Tom
and his wife wanted to return to the US.
The ACS Board conducted an exhaustive
search and selected Dr. Paul Johnson to
be the new ACS president. The decisive
factors in Dr. Johnson’s selection were
his illustrious career in education in the
US, as well as extensive administrative
experience. Dr. Johnson is currently the
superintendent of a large school district
in North Dakota, encompassing fifteen
grade schools, three middle schools, two
senior high schools, an alternative high
school, a career and technical center, and
an early childhood program, with nearly
11,000 students in total.  
Bill then provided an update on the
college admission trends at the school,
including Mr. Cangiano’s efforts to raise
the profile of ACS in the UK through
meetings with admissions officers at
Cambridge, Oxford, and other schools. 
In contrast to what we were seeing a few
years ago, the number of alumni going
to UK universities increased dramatically
after Bulgaria was admitted to the EU.
However, for the current class, there
was an increase in the US applications
as the benefits and drawbacks of the
UK system are becoming more widely
known. The ACS counseling office has
worked hard on putting the students on
the right track, along with bringing recent
alumni back to the school to participate
in a panel discussion on the topic.
Another broad topic that was discussed
was the school’s finances. Bill spoke
about the importance of high alumni
participation in the donation effort in
addition to large outside donors. He also
discussed the aid the school has received
from the US government. Further, he
touched upon the large cultural divide
between the US and European views
on the alumni relationships with their
schools. There were several questions
regarding the (now not-so-new) single
rate tuition policy, its effect on the
applicant pool, the financial aid process,
and the optimal enrollment size. A
couple of years ago ACS moved away
from its dual scholarship/full tuition
rate, and extended financial aid eligibility
to all admitted applicants. The Board
believes that this is a fairer approach to
the incoming students (the old system
was kept for the classes admitted under
the prior set-up). Bill also discussed
the specific challenges to determining
financial aid eligibility in Bulgaria (such as
the unreliability of official taxable income
information). Finally, we discussed the
number of students taking the school’s
Some of the alumni who attended the meeting in NYC
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