The Firebird Volume 2 (2016-17) | Page 16

News Reunion 2016 Reunion 2017 Every year we host a weekend where Alumni return to share stories and learn new ones. Once again, the College has been grateful of the support of our alumni members over the 2016-17 year. This has been through both the work of the Grey Association, and also through individuals coming to the College to give of the time in var- ious ways to support our current life. We are particularly grateful to those alumni who have come and given of their time to talk about their careers and place of work to current students. Back over the weekend 31st March to 2nd April we welcomed alumni back to College for the Annual Reunion held with the Grey College Association. It was great to welcome back Alumni from throughout the College’s history. As always the main event of the weekend was the excellent dinner in the Hall on the Saturday evening, and we extended our grateful thanks to Bryan Huitson (Head Chef) and Nicola Gittins (Front of House) and their teams for all the hard work they put in to make the event so memorable. At this year’s reunion, we were pleased to see and spend time with a group celebrating the 40th anniversary of graduation. As they had mainly studied physics, the College arranged for them to see the Ogden Centre West, the University’s new building where research into Astronomy and Cosmology is undertaken. A reception was then held for the group before the dinner, where various items of memorabilia including year group photos and copies of the Phoenix Magazine from the years the group were students. This brought lots or reminiscing and a great starting point for conversations of what has (and hasn’t changed) in Col- lege over the intervening period. The group are looking forward to meeting up at Grey for their next big anniversary already! Your Stories We’d love to hear your stories and current news let us know at [email protected] In future editions, we hope to be able to include a selection of memories of Grey College from former students, as well as any news about former students. If anyone would like to contribute to this section please send your memories or news to grey.alumni@ durham.ac.uk. Perhaps you have got married, changed careers or moved house. Occasionally, spe- cific memories may be requested through either the monthly Univer- sity Alumni Newswire, or through social media. The College will only publish anything you provide in accordance with your wishes. Additionally, the College is always delighted to hear from any of our former students at the above ad- dress at any time, and you can use this as a general contact address for the college. Further ways to keep in touch with the College are by following us on twitter, @grey_college, and at the 16 The College had also arranged a display of current development work, including the final plans for the refurbishment of Fountains Hall, which began over the sum- mer, and also our next project to be able to provide a much great- er amount of money towards annual awards for student devel- opment outside the classroom. The display, as in the previous year, also enabled alumni to view reports from students who had been awarded money from the Grey College Association. These awards meant students could: attend the National Council for Metal Detecting; take part in an Introduction to Mountaineering Course in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado; and being part of the American election campaign trail. The support of these awards, which is in addition to those awarded by the College Trust, really does help their personal development. If alumni would like to get in- volved in supporting the College, please do get in touch with the Vice-Master in the first instance, [email protected] We are always delighted to hear from you. RIGHT Vice Master Peter Swift shakes hand of grad- uate and JCR President-Elect David Slade website, dur.ac.uk/grey.college/ alumni