Thanksgiving Dinner

I’ve always loved the professors I’ve come into contact with at the College, and I was able to really appreciate the professors here even more last night at my sorority’s Thanksgiving dinner. Every year we have a Thanksgiving dinner and invite our favorite professors over to the sorority house. When the invites went out, I was slacking and didn’t give one to any of my professors. When I got to the dinner I didn’t recognize any of the professors, but I struck up a conversation with one that was sitting with one of my friends. He is an African Studies professor at the College and I’m majoring in History with a concentration in African Studies, so our conversation naturally turned that way.

He talked about his childhood in Sudan, how he met his wife, and the future president -elect of South Africa. I couldn’t believe that I could just casually start up a conversation with him, and he was very excited to meet me and talk to me. By the end of our conversation, I knew that he is retiring next year, and he made me promise that I would take one of his classes. I know that he will remember me when it comes time to register for next fall’s classes, and I feel so lucky that I was able to make friends with a professor out of the blue like this — and that he was geniunely interested in getting to know me. That’s been my experience at the College — the faculty are amazing, completely open and available to students, and sometimes are even ready to discuss African politics over a turkey dinner.

Blair Saunders

Class of 2011