Everybody’s Talking about Oglethorpe: A Day with Something for Everyone

On Saturday, February 17, 2024, the excitement on campus was palpable during Scholarship Weekend as prospective Petrels walked the halls of Hearst, Cousins, and Lupton, toured the dorms, and mingled in The Turner Lynch Campus Center. A group of alumni were privileged to interview the best and the brightest of hopeful students vying for a James Edward Oglethorpe scholarship. Speaking with these students gives me hope for our future; they are intelligent, driven, and incredibly motivated to make this world a better place!

“The weekend was a beautiful reminder that Oglethorpe has truly shaped who I am, from what I learned as a student to the relationships that I hold close today, nearly 40 years after arriving on campus,” said Kathleen McDermott Kraynick, ’88.  “The opportunity to talk with engaging, hardworking scholarship candidates and learn about their vision reinforces for me how very bright the future is.”

After the interviews, many of the alumni interviewers attended a lovely reception where we had time to catch up with fellow alumni, staff and administration, as well as meet prospective students and their parents.

Later that evening, alumni were back for a pre-show reception in the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (OUMA) where we were provided the opportunity to view OUMA’s diverse permanent collection and the newly installed exhibition Contrapunto: Works by a Contemporary Latin American Artist Collective.  The collection is so incredible that several of us had trouble determining whether some of the pieces were photographs or paintings!

Finally, we made our way to the Conant Performing Arts Center for a fabulously entertaining musical production of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” a collaboration between Actor’s Express and students in the Oglethorpe theatre program. We were all absolutely blown away by the incredible talent of our students!

The final song of this musical production sums up how I have always felt about being back on campus.  I hope the students we met will someday know this feeling as well… 

“Follow your freedom
It’s gonna be alright
In this place where we belong….”

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