district that's important that we engage our alumni we have amazing alumni who have done incredible things and have gone so many different places and i think we really want as a district to show our current students you know where our alumni have gone and what they've done but i think we also really want to create opportunities way mia was instrumental in getting this idea started it was really sort of her brainchild and bob came along right away so you guys have been wonderful so thank you for your work with us but i thought as an alumnus what made you interested and wanted to be part of launching an alumni association well thanks brenda we have a tremendous true tradition of success at princeton high school academically athletically artistically and everybody connected with that success who's gone there has a connection back to the realm of mater funny i think is the older you get the stronger that connection becomes i give tours of the high school returning alumni classes when they're coming back for reunions and i'll conduct about five or six a year and they walk in the building a lot of never seen it since they graduated twenty thirty forty fifty years ago and you can just see in their faces and how they enjoy the experience of coming back being back at their realm of mater it's all about tradition for me it's a tradition that that i think is unique we have a beautiful campus we have a beautiful building  demographically there were people who we only had one sending district back then so everybody was was new each other it's just a feeling of a familiar place that everybody wants to be a part of and i i  think it's it's the right thing to do and i just think tradition is is what spurs it on to where we are now absolutely mia have a few again this is you know you've been pushing for this for a long time this isn't even advocating for what made you decide that you know association is really something that that our community our high school needs well it was particularly moving as an adult and starting to have conversations with other parents who had children in the system  and realizing a that i do think in princeton we have an extraordinarily high number of multigenerational families going through and graduating from high school the grandparents have got through the parents that got thro connection and loyalty that bob described was so much there after all these years so and i think a lot of universities have that yes that you go to  university and there and you're connected to a network of people who sort of have your back who you know want to support you who want to help introduce you to you know people who could be helpful to you professionally  or so i was thinking in particular of the you know existing students that since you know as bob said we have really some pretty impressive alumni that it would be great if they could connect with existing students and help them  and in particular the new student science supervisor and i have been working on a number of initiatives and he had reached out to me about finding some in the scientific field who could do who could act as mentors for his students for some of the projects that they're working on so that was another impetus and then you know finally there was interesting to me that there seemed to be at least from there was a difference from when i was there in the eighty's which was just a few years after when papa said look you know i felt like we had a really strong tradition of  you know being of teachers engaging with the students to prepare them to engage on the world stage so i'm just talking about issues related to social justice and there seemed to be somewhat less of that and i looked you know when i was looking through my facebook page and i realized that so many of the people in my class went into public some service or some sort of  humanitarian tradition work or social justice and it seemed that that would be really useful to have that input to have those alarms as exam as examples and then you know sort of i realize what we have amazing who can serve as role models and you know people in the arts and so it just seemed a shame to squander all that that wonderful talent and not have it connecting back to the district now absolutely well as a district and we're talking a lot about equity and really trying to make sure that we are being equitable and i think one aspect of equity that i find so interesting is the idea of representation you know when you see people who look like you have come from somewhere backgrounds who had similar experiences in life and you see them in certain positions that representation in your office and think i could do that too so it's really i think you're totally spot on that the idea of being able to show our current students here's where people have gone from princeton high school whether you're the c e o or whether you're making a difference in someone's life working in the nonprofit sector or whatever you're doing in life being able to show your students and really have that representation out there i think that it's really wonderful but i know i'm excited about that aspect of this know as you just said about you know here i was at princeton high school twenty years ago look where i am now it will be inspirational i mean and there's just so many avenues that this can take a similar all positive and i'm sure you'll talk about the response which has been really strong so far i'm excited about it i think there are there's endless things that we can do with it and we're only just scratching the surface because we're running beginning so i think it's great that i'd like to have background that a little bit more in just a few minutes to make sure that we talk about homecoming weekend yes that's october twentieth and twenty first of the friday and saturday and we're using that sort of other big official kickoff for the o e m s association you guys have been again instrumental in helping us get that ready  center lobby from five to seven we have a home football game homecoming football game friday night yes we have temporary lights not permanent one against northern burlington and then the following day they'll be some mercer county tournament games in boys and girls soccer perhaps field hockey so we'll be able to let people know the times and the locations of those events so that's the athletic piece of it this is probably our fourth maybe third or fourth friday night homecoming football game each time it grows it becomes a real event and it's a good thing hopefully they will have some decent weather   they're directing they're coming up with the music are more picking the selections so yeah i'm really excited for that part of it so and i think a few more things that maybe you can yeah like you said i think we're doing a historical tour of princeton which i think will be a really nice way we often take for granted where we live in a very state we come from other people might come in and play tourist and we have no idea if somebody's history that we're surrounded by so there will be a nice opportunity even the alumni might think that they already know everything about princeton sort of learn some of the history  and then we're also doing tours of the high school on the saturday so that alumni can sort of see how the high school is growing and what's going on and part of that again we're going to have a historical society of princeton presenting some the history of education in princeton i don't know if you guys even knew this but i learned the other week when i had a meeting with historical society that there's not an official start date for princeton high school even because history the history of education in our town is so lengthy and we've had so many schools over the years that sort of like when pressed a high school officials started is really hard to pin down so there will be some fun things for alumni to learn about the bubbles the town and the high school itself absolutely the tour will be fine i think we're offering these tours and connecting alarms who have been involved in athletics outsmarting our existing athletic program in all sorts of ways and so we're we're just going and there are a number of different groups so this is going  to but they're all unofficial so this is an attempt to make it housed in the district to be sponsored and spearheaded and organized by the district we had lots of information floating around and databases and so i think that was a big question i noticed on the i grew up in saying but wait don't we have an association or do we have so we have had a number of sort of static online presences that one which people signed up for but there's so much more that's possible now with technology and social media in terms of remaining connected so we will have an official facebook ph and we are trying to coli all of the information that we've gathered and so i think one of the most important things that are a big ask at the moment is for anyone who receives the letter and hopefully everyone watching this has received a letter that they would just send it around and make sure that all of the people that they went to that they're still in touch with have it and and if people so if if if people send in the letter or write or e mail or get a letter  then we will eventually have a really awesome princeton high school alum logo to send in return and i'm so glad that you brought that up because that is something bad we do have a limited database right now of our alumni so we really are trying email the e mail address and also information on the district website but we really are trying to spread the word build a list of contacts and like you said unify it we really want to make sure that we are officially bringing everything together we're stronger together i think you know the more that we can be unified the more that we can really be a resource for our alumni for students to be stronger as a community so thank you for thank you for mentioning that because of the really important point that when you're writing on the topic of unity i just also want to add that you know  you know not everyone has the same connection to the high school and it hasn't always been unified and so i think there's a racial healing that needs to happen and i think we're hoping through this association that people who don't feel connected to the high school based on their experience there could we could maybe at this even at this late stage find some healing and connection and be open about some of the periods in the in both princeton's past and in the educational systems past when things were  not unified absolutely absolutely that's really important and i want to make sure that all alumni feel welcome and we really are in gauging all meaningful ways and reconnecting and helping to move forward and again i think at some point you bring this back to our current students of making on homecoming weekend or what do you hope our alumni will take away as they as they join in on these different festivities and that they come back and up and mix and mingle media and go first i'm hoping that they get excited about the students that are there and th about ways that they could help them so you know whatever their field is i'm hoping that this will be a vehicle for you know for their own personal brainstorming about how they can give back and you know the the this this system the school system did a lot to them and i think we all feel that it was extremely formative and it seems there that we should be able to offer as much support as possible to the students who are there and so that would be my hope that they connect with the existing students and start you know figuring out ways to help yeah absolutely but what are you looking for i i think about we would we would introduce alumni classes at halftime of football games who are back for reunions and the kids would be up in the stands and they be cheering and clapping as as the class of sixty five or students are so today students are so busy and preoccupied that they they don't see that but it's one day i'll be an alumnus right here is what these people have become and just you know just how important princeton high school was in their lives i mean it's it's an amazing place and i think to recognize that and for the alumni to come back and feel that again i think is phenomenal so i think i think for homecoming weekend it's just a connection that for the enormity the alma mater is just a feeling that they have a place that's theirs they were part of it always they are always home they're still part of it and i think connecting all of this together is just  prove to them that they are part of that and then maybe they can choose to be even more of a part of it by helping in some way with today's students to make their existence at princeton high school more meaningful so under wraps actor out of you that's a great segue earlier we're talking a little bit about vision and you know that we have this great history x unity we have used this in one of the traditions the values the experience of me you talk a little bit about innovation that you feel you experience at the high school what are some of those experiences in our school this year that you really hope that before a real commitment to to civic engagement important patient public service and social justice and making the world a better place i mean yeah and it plastic way expressing it but i i do think that that has been a unique and assess within it's in high school for a very long time and there are you know extraordinarily high numbers of alum who are involved in government and you know right now so i would love to see that continue i think that one of the phrases that was popular is to strive for excellence in everything we do academically artistically and athletically and i think that carries over into later life just to just to try is to hard as you can and perseverance and  try to strive for that excellence and traditionally we've done that a princeton high school you look at that you look at the incredible accomplishments academically and artistically and athletically and a ll goes hand in hand and not one doesn't supersede academics of course or the primary purpose but just that that striving for excellence that embodies what princeton high school is about and the alumni are examples accomplished so much in their own way in what they've done and that excellence is just what preston high school is about in so many different ways and just to have that come back and maybe rub off on some of the students of today i think is meaningful you know a guy or the idea of being a high school student saying hey i wanna go to that college who i know who went there and having this pool of a long night who could say i'll give you two are you know i'm in the area let me let me show you around that college campus let me introduce  people i think there's just so many beneficial ways that we can we can build on those connections and you know you heard talked earlier about the college idea right you know like you know what my network in college and there are so ready and willing to support and help you and i think a lot of people do have a lot of fondness for our for a town you know it's a unique place that we live it's a unique school district it is full of excellence it's full of people who are caring so being able to sort of build some of those opportunities i think will be really exciting that there is going to take some work but i think it's going to be really exciting so if i may just want to say that every person that i've reached out to every alarm has said what a no brainer i got why don't they already have that in fact that we now do but i mean the response really has been so enthusiastic and as i also want to mention one other thing which is i feel like the whole live to learn learn to learn to live to me that embodies what what this is about which is showing how i have incorporated both those emphases in their life and i also there's this the launch of this corresponds with some other very exciting news which is that our new superintendent signed a five year contract which is to me these these two things  so we've got just a few more minutes i want to make sure that our audience knows that we're launching slim association the official kickoff will be homecoming weekend that's october twentieth and twenty first and if you want more information they can check our website got some information up there about homecoming even on association form that people can actually fill out to officially join so that they get e mails they stay up to date of all that's going on in our district and we've also got an r c p farm so they're coming to homecoming weekend they can love what activities they like to be part of so you can make sure we have spots available for everyone so i think it's a really exciting time and again the homecoming weekend is really the weekend that we're kicking this off and getting this going but this is something that the lasting part of the future and we hope that we really get a lot of alumni support like me aside we've already gotten so much and your initiation with this is a lot of my association we're really excited to get this moving forward and really make sure that it that we're ready to serve our students and our alumni so we look forward to seeing both of you on homecoming weekend if i haven't mentioned it it's october twentieth and twenty