“Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.”
—Tennessee Williams

Every year, we experience the bittersweet emotions of graduation.  Students we have taught, coached, watched perform, traveled with, laughed with, sometimes cried with, and seen grow up prepare to leave us for the next step in their educational journey.  We are happy for them, and sad because we will miss them greatly.  When the next school year comes, these recent grads may be off on their next adventure, but they’re still in our hearts.  

We know that starting college can be stressful, so we send care packages to each of our grads toward the end of the first semester.  Starting in August, Development & Communications Assistant Bella Peters begins reminding faculty/staff about our alumni care packages. Faculty and staff members write notes and often include gifts as a way to show that we still treasure them.

“The alumni packages are a rare moment to slow down and appreciate the process of caring for others,” Bella says. “In the age of Amazon and grocery delivery, we no longer send packages to friends or family.”

Throughout the first quarter, Bella speaks with faculty and staff members about the care packages and with parents of alumni to get a mailing address. 

“I spend extra time writing their names on the packages because I don’t think care packages should have a printed label,” she added. “Growing up, my family sent each other the “sticker box,” which was the same flat-rate box with more and more stickers added to it with each new recipient. The alumni care packages remind me of the process we went through to make sure the outside of the box was just as special as the inside. The recent graduates may be scattered across the country, but we can send warm drinks and encouraging messages to remind them they are still loved as they stress over their first-semester finals.”

Our hope is that these packages demonstrate our strongly-held belief that even if our former students are attending college and may be far from home, they remain in our minds and hearts.  In so many ways, we remember them, their myriad contributions to the Keystone community, and the ways they enriched our lives.  

We also want to assure them on their first set of college exams that the faculty/staff from their former school still have their back, and we are still rooting for them.  We know that this is an anxiety-inducing time for them, and if we can perhaps reduce it a bit by letting them know how much they mean to us, we want to do that.

Our alumni appreciate the gesture.

“I want to say that the care package is still my favorite thing I’ve picked up from the mail center,” said Ava Parker-Nowicki ‘24, who attends Bowdoin College. “It’s so nice to know that our teachers are still thinking about us and we’re still part of the Keystone community, even all the way up in Maine.” 

Kylie Cave, who studies at Smith College in Massachusetts, explained, “The care packages came at a really great time of year. It was so nice to have something to remind you of home during our first finals period of college. Hearing from all my older teachers really meant a lot especially amidst the stress.”

So, why do we engage in this annual ritual? Part of the reason is that we see our connection with students continuing after they graduate. On a deeper level, it’s because our students matter to us. Ever since the entire faculty read “Never Enough; The Toxic Side of Achievement Culture” by Jennifer Brehenny Wallace, we try to demonstrate to our students they mean a great deal to us as people. They are more than a test score, a performance, or an award. They are important people beyond any performative aspect, and we care about them.  

As Wallace explains, “Mattering expresses the deep need we all have to feel seen, cared for, and understood by those around us, notes social psychologist Gregory Elliott of Brown University. Elliott describes the feeling of mattering this way: Do people take an interest in you and what you have to say? Do you have people who can share your triumphs and support you after setbacks? Do people depend on you and rely on you for guidance and help? As long as we live, this instinctual need to matter never changes.”

One of the most exciting elements of the periods before and after Winter Break is seeing alumni when they stop by campus. Whether they participate in our Alumni Days activities in January or just pop in to say hello, we revel in seeing them and hearing their stories.  They lighten our moods and make our days whether they are describing a class they’re taking or one of their professors.  Even after graduation, they still matter to us.