1990 – Spring ’21 Class Letter
1990 – Spring 2021 Class Letter
Greetings, Class of 1990!
Hope this note finds you healthy! It’s hard to believe that it’s been one year since our nation has been grappling with the COVID-19 crisis and… we hope this is behind us.
We have good news regarding Alumni Weekend and our 30th Class Reunion! We will be celebrating our 30th Reunion along with the Class of 1991. As you know, many of us have friends from neighboring classes so this should be extra fun to share in the celebration. Alumni Weekend 2021 will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen with two distinct summer weekends of Ripon alumni programming for us. No matter how you’d like to connect, virtually or in person, the Office of Constituent Engagement is developing a variety of activities to continue to follow CDC, Fond du Lac County and College guidelines in both June and August. Full schedules, lodging, and programming details will be posted soon to www.ripon.edu/alumni-weekend.
JUNE 2021
- In honor of our June Alumni Weekend traditions, virtual alumni programming will be held Tuesday, June 22 through Saturday, June 26, and will include: an alumni town hall, R Connections webinars, affinity socials, a summer book club, and special recognition of the 2020 and 2021 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees.
- The only in-person event, the Doc Weiske ’50 Memorial Golf Scramble, will be held off-campus on Friday, June 25.
AUGUST 2021
A combination of virtual and in-person Alumni Weekend programming will be held the first week of August. We will continue to evaluate the state of COVID-19. If circumstances change at the local and national level and we need to cancel in-person programming, that decision will be made and communicated by July 1, 2021.
- Virtual programming will be held Tuesday, August 3 through Saturday, August 7 and will include: a reunion-focused alumni town hall that also previews the new academic year, additional R Connections webinars, the summer book club capstone, and the traditional “That Was Then” storytelling session.
- In-person, on-campus programming will be held Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8, and will focus on alumni awards recognition, 2020 and 2021 reunion celebrations including our 30th Reunion celebration, and other outdoor events such as Rally Run and prairie walk.
- Additionally, the Class of 2020 will officially be welcomed to our alumni community with a special commencement ceremony.
If you are curious as to how the pandemic has affected life on Ripon’s campus, here are a few updates:
- Classes officially started on January 25 with a mix of in-person, online, and hybrid (part online and part in-person) formats. The weekend before classes started, the entire campus community (all students, faculty, and staff) were required to take a COVID-19 test, which was administered on campus in Great Hall resulting in a less than one percent positivity rate.
- Beginning on February 1, the College began random weekly surveillance testing where approximately a quarter of the College community will be tested.
- Those who are interested in following the plans and procedures this semester, as well as tracking the COVID-19 positivity rate on campus, can visit www.ripon.edu/coronavirus-information/ for more information.
#OneDayRally and Ripon Fund Updates:
- Ripon’s annual giving day, known as #OneDayRally, will be held on Wednesday, April 28. Be sure to save the date.
- All alumni are encouraged to sport their Ripon College attire and post it on their social media platforms on that day.
- Thank you to all of you who support the College in any capacity. The Class of 1990 had 29 donors who gave a total of $32,995.10 this past fiscal year, ending on June 30th. Nice job, Class of 1990. This support makes a difference, and it is especially admirable to see our class gift given what we all experienced this past year.
Here are our Class Notes:
DAN TRAMPF ’90 of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, has been honored by his profession to be selected into the Wisconsin Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be in April of 2021. He will be the first Ripon College Alum to be placed into the Hall of Fame as an athletic trainer. A plaque with his biography and picture will be placed at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, which is where all hall of fame plaques are featured.
SUSAN FRIKKEN ’90 of Madison, Wisconsin was featured in a story about her experience at Ripon College. Here is a snippet from the article: Ripon College gave Frikken “life skills, the ability to engage thoughtfully and intelligently about the wide world, and a lifelong community of friends,” she says. Frikken’s studies at Ripon prepared her for a variety of career endeavors. She has worked in environmental education, as a ballroom dance instructor, at the nonprofit Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C., and then as a massage therapist. The article in its entirety can be accessed here. Susan will also be featured in an article in the 2021 winter edition of the Ripon Magazine.
Don’t hesitate to send us your update for the Class Letter at any time throughout the year. We look forward to hearing from you, and we hope to see many of you this summer at our 30th Class Reunion celebration!
Stay safe and see you soon, we hope!
ROBERT E. CORKERY, JR. ’90
(508) 930-9027 / [email protected]
CHRISTINA L. MAGGIO KELLERSTRASS ’90
(708) 764-1881 / [email protected]
Your 1990 Class Agents