Parish Alumni Office “On the Road” Fall Recap

Who doesn’t love hopping in the car to go and visit your favorite friends? The Alumni Office at Parish Episcopal School has made it a tradition since 2014 to visit Parish Alumni across the country. These road trips have been a great way to build community within the Alumni Association of almost 1,500 Parish Episcopal graduates! The Alumni team starts by preparing travel plans in early summer, mapping out their destinations. The office keeps a track of where alumni are attending college to determine in which cities to host an event in relation to where our Panthers live and attend college. The “save the dates” go out in late summer and this is when the real fun begins…the adventures, near and far, to visit our Panthers!

Due to the pandemic in 2020, the office held off on travel plans; however, this fall the “Alumni on the Road” was back in full swing and the team couldn’t have been more excited to get back on the road! Lauren Henderson, Director of Alumni Relations and Diane Webber, Alumni Relations Emerita and Special Events, kicked off the new season with a road trip to Norman, OK, to visit the Sooner Panthers for dinner. The group met at The Mont, a highly recommended college favorite. Topics of conversations included hectic schedules, work, internships and life after graduating from OU. Our Sooner Alumni were entertaining and appreciative to have dinner with Parish friends, new and old! The next stop was in Austin, TX, to visit our 60+ alumni living and working in Austin. The Alumni team had dinner with more than 25 Parish alumni at Banger’s Sausage House, a hot spot on Rainey Street recommended by our Austin Panthers. Alumni classes ranged from Class of 2008 to Class of 2022. Banger’s Sausage House could have been mistaken for Panther Nation instead of the Burnt Orange! Diane and Lauren wanted to share one of their favorite comments from one of our Longhorns: “I was so prepared by Parish for college that my classes are really easy as a freshman."

The team then drove to College Station to visit the Parish Aggies, consisting of a wide range of students, including Engineering, Veterinary Science, and even a Meteorology major. These alumni were very busy with their studies but the Alumni team was thankful they made time to come and hang out. The evening concluded with a visit to see "DJ B," Bridget Frank ’16, in action! She had high energy music mixes prepared for the evening to entertain all her passionate fans!

To kick off the month of December, Lauren reached out to the alumni at TCU inquiring if they wanted a faculty member to join her on the road, and who they would like it to be. It was unanimous that the group wanted US Math Teacher and Parish parent of alumni, Cathy Morris! The evening was full of reliving Morris’ advisory shenanigans, catching up on academics and life as a Horned Frog.

Future trips will include a visit to NYC in January 2023 where more than 60 alumni live and work. In March 2023 the team will visit our large group of alumni at SMU.