MCAA Avenue

On Saturday, October 21, 2017, the Master’s College Alumni Association (MCAA) hosted its annual Alumni Day Gathering with an extraordinarily special event to commemorate the 10^th Anniversary of The Master’s College.

Since its founding in 2007 by GSAS Dean Emeritus Catherine R. Stimpson, the Master’s College has impacted hundreds of master’s students through its versatile programming. Most prominently, the Master’s College Program Board organizes and promotes events that build community and foster fellowship amongst master’s students across disciplines throughout the Graduate School. As those students graduate, they join the Master’s College Alumni Association, which establishes connections amongst master’s alumni beyond graduation and continues the continuation of intellectual growth. Together, the Program Board and the MCAA carry on the spirit of the Master’s College that “Dean Kate” (as we affectionately know her) founded ten years ago.

The event brought together GSAS alumni near and far, and offered an opportunity for the community to gather as a whole to thank Dean Kate in person. Calvin Vinitwatanakhun, President of the MCAA, with assistance from Farshin Zargaran, President of Program Board, presented Dean Kate with a very special gift: a book collection of quotes and testimonials from master’s alumni about what the Master’s College meant to them as students and what it continues to mean as alumni.

Special thanks to the MCAA Leadership Board and the Master’s College Program Board for their collaboration on such a memorable event. Special thanks to GSAS Dean Philip Brian Harper, GSAS Dean’s Advisory Board Chair Nina Augello, and NYU Chief Diversity Office Lisa Coleman for their support.

And to our current students, alumni, and friends of the Master’s College – we thank you for celebrating such an unforgettable moment with us! We look forward to celebrating with you again next year at the annual MCAA Alumni Day Gathering, and all that the next 10 years have in store!

Check out photos from the event here.

In exactly one month, the Master’s College celebrates its 10-year anniversary: 

Saturday, October 21, 2017
4:30 – 6:00 pm
Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
40 Washington Square South
RSVP here

Save the date and come celebrate this momentous occasion with your hosts, the Master’s College Alumni Association. Reconnect with fellow GSAS alumni, friends of the Master’s College, and raise a glass (or two) to commemorate this special moment in our community’s history. 

We hope to see you there!

Last week, the MCAA hosted a Wine Bottling & Tasting event with the Village Winery Club. Unlike typical wine tastings, this one was special because of the hands-on experience of the urban wine movement, from barrel to bottle. 

Master’s alumni from varying departments and programs–from English and Journalism to Biology and Psychology–gathered for an evening of hors d’ouvres and a wine tasting of the club’s most recent varietals, including blends of cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, and a cabernet-franc rosé. 

The highlight of the night was the actual bottling experience: instructors provided a step-by-step demonstration of the procedures, which included the press and filter, corking, labeling, and sealing. Alumni had the opportunity to participate in the process from start to finish, while reconnecting along the way. What a great way to close out Summer 2017!

Special thanks to our MCAA hosts, Katie Peterson (Politics, ’12) and Calvin Vinitwatanakhun (Math in Finance, ’13), for organizing this event. 

To learn about upcoming MCAA events, be sure to follow along on Facebook and our webpage. To learn about the Village Winery Club, click here. 

This July, alumni communed together for another edition of our MCAA Roundtable event series–MCAA Roundtable: In Defense of the Arts. The evening discussion was led by our very own Andrew Tripodo (Politics, ‘16) and Nishant Kumar (Information Systems, ‘16) at West Third Commons and delved into the value of the arts and humanities in our education system, and how we can reposition their importance in society as they face loss of regular funding.

The conversation, while respectful, brought different viewpoints to the table and engaged deeper conversations around how we define art. It was an evening of intellectual conversation about what can potentially be done to shift the perception of arts in society in a way that better emphasizes their actual impact on our culture, from childhood education to our civic responsibility as adults.

Thanks to the efforts of the MCAA leadership, the roundtable conversation brought together graduates across a variety of programs, from Journalism to Math in Finance. We look forward to our next roundtable in the coming months! Check out more information from the event here. 

If you have any ideas of topic discussions for a future MCAA Roundtable, we want to hear them! Please email gsas.masterscollege.alumni@nyu.edu.

Another school year has come and gone, and with it we welcomed another graduating class of master’s students into the Master’s College Alumni Association. In keeping with tradition, we raised our glasses at our annual Grad Toast celebration this past May to cheers those beginning the next chapters in their careers.

Held at the Greenberg Lounge of the Law School, master’s alumni gathered to meet their newest counterparts and celebrate the accomplishments they achieved while at NYU, including those who participated and made it to the final rounds of the GSAS’s annual Threesis competition.

The night kicked off with a toast from our new Vice President of the Master’s College Alumni Association, Molly Socha (Journalism, ‘14), who also thanked the Interim President of the MCAA, Katie Peterson (Politics, ‘12), for leading the alumni community with such enthusiasm through another year of engaging events.

As always, Grad Toast is our opportunity to show graduating students that the Master’s College reaches beyond the graduate school experience. It keeps us connected by creating opportunities to continue building off of our master’s education through social networking and meaningful career development. Many thanks to the Executive Board–Calvin Vinitwatanakhun, Molly Socha, Mai Huyhn, Zac McDermott, and Nishant Kumar–for their leadership this past academic year. We are thrilled to welcome the class of 2017 to this vibrant community! Check out photos from the event on the Facebook event page.