The article "The Upside of the Down Economy" [winter 2009] was informative and inspiring in its portrayal of the willingness, desire and motivation of alumni to find new careers at any age.
I, too, have changed careers, from human resources to higher education and fiction writing. If you don't take your foot off first base, you'll never get to second.
Antonio F. Vianna (KSM82)
Carlsbad, Calif.
We would like to encourage alumni who are considering a job or career change to contact the University's campus career center.
University Career Services has offered help to Northwestern alumni for nearly 100 years. We continue to provide one-on-one consultation, access to job postings, career assessments, résumé consultation and various resources to alumni at all academic and experience levels. We offer telephone consultation sessions for those who can't visit us on campus. For more information contact us at UCS-Alumni@northwestern.edu.
What a football game it was — the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl in Tampa.
The Wildcats, as well as the family and band members and student backers attending the game, created an unforgettable experience, of which all may be rightly proud.
Our guys must know in their hearts, as do we, that they were just as much winners of this year's Outback Bowl as the team that left the field with a meaningless three-point advantage in the official score.
During my 80 years — 59 of them since graduating in 1950 as senior class president — I have never watched another college football game about which it can be more fairly said that only winners played and that there was no losing team.
Jeff Corydon (J50, GJ53)
Tampa
Editor's note:Read more about the Outback Bowl and see photos from the Northwestern Alumni Association events in Tampa.
News on Campus
I was dismayed to read "Welcoming the Diverse Class of 2013" [News on Campus, winter 2009]. The article boasts that the average SAT score of Northwestern's freshman class is 1439, and yet this composite score reflects the old two-section SAT (verbal/math) that hasn't been administered since 2005. The current test includes three sections - critical reading, math and writing - and combined scores range from 600 to 2400. A composite average of 1439 looks positively abysmal (with an average section score of 479) and certainly nothing Northwestern would choose to brag about.
Furthermore, I challenge the premise that these SAT scores reflect a "smart and talented" class. Yes, I'm confident that the University's freshmen are smart and talented, but it isn't their SAT scores that provide the evidence.
Catherine Jester (C77, GC78)
Albany, Calif.
Editor's note:Like most of its peer institutions, Northwestern University does not formally factor the SAT writing subscores into the application review process or into its reporting. The average SAT quoted in the story is a combination of the SAT critical reading and mathematics subscores, so the highest total possible is 1600.
Alumni News
There was no other alumnus or alumna who deserved a feature death notice than John R. Stillman (C68) [Obituaries, Alumni News, fall 2009], who achieved notoriety as Jack Wrangler, gay porn star?
Gerard K. Meagher (GJ78)
New York City
I wanted to thank you for the insightful and sympathetic obituary you ran for John Stillman (C68), better known to an entire generation of gay men as Jack Wrangler. I would hope that things have changed enough that you didn't receive any bigoted backlash. But even today one never knows, and I think you displayed admirable courage.
After I received my bachelor of music and master of music degrees at Northwestern, I did additional graduate work at Princeton University, where the atmosphere was so homophobic that my time there represents the three most miserable years of my life. Northwestern's open-mindedness and sensitivity make me very proud of my alma mater. Keep up the good work.
John Schauer (BSM70, GBSM71)
Evanston
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