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Social media allows �þ���Ƶ alumni the ability to engage with the school on a level that increases every year. As tools like Pinterest and Twitter gain prominence, so does the interaction. It turns out, �þ���Ƶ alumni love to share.

Facebook and LinkedIn offer alumni a chance to reminisce about their time at �þ���Ƶ. An example of this was when . Former students commented on the university news blog and about their memories of .

Laurel Brown ’99 wrote: “In my freshman year, my favorite class was taught by Tony Aveni — a man who did strange experiments with fire extinguishers and encouraged my edible model of the Earth’s orbit. In my senior year, one of my best trips ever — to the Mayan ruins of Central America — was led by Tony Aveni. Two of my favorite college experiences thanks to one extremely influential professor. Congratulations!”

In total, seven former students commented on the blog post, and 22 commented on Facebook (if you visit , click back on the timeline to April 9).

Here’s another Facebook example from Katja Liedtke Brinck ’98, who wrote: “Congratulations Professor Aveni! Archaeoastronomy was definitely my favorite class at �þ���Ƶ (even though it was outside my major and my career), and I will never forget the Mexico trip in 1997 – one of my highlights at �þ���Ƶ!”

With an institution like �þ���Ƶ, there is a connection between students and professors that transcends the four years on campus.

More examples of that came from LinkedIn, where Mary Ellen Lane ’88 wrote about : “Innovation and Change was a new class when I took it, in 1987. It was taught by Margaret Maurer, Paul Pinet and Chris Nevison … We were given an interesting set of choices for an independent project, and we presented our projects to the class. I ended up writing about the intellectual history of molecular biology and molecular cloning, and its implications. I learned so much in that class and from my project.

“My experience actually impacted the way I approached teaching in my specialty area (developmental biology). I attempted to present the material as a coherent collection of ideas with a history, and focused particular attention on concepts or experiments that represented a shift in thinking about the subject, or had profound social implications.”

Your turn: Tell us about the classes and the professors who most strongly influenced your years at �þ���Ƶ.