What a busy year it has been! I have enjoyed hearing from many of you on your travels, marriages, births, moves and journeys to lands afar. But, I want to hear from more of you! What have you experienced this year? Please write to us and send in an update. Your fellow alumni would love to hear about your adventures, even if they are within the confines of Fairfax County! This is the perfect time to reconnect if you have fallen out of touch, or to simply provide those of us with some interesting gossip! Who knows, maybe reconnecting with a fellow alumnus might uncover a new opportunity, one for a business or career; or perhaps just to provide some insight into 'whatever happened to..."
In 2009, the Alumni Association will be embarking on its greatest partnership ever. We will be working directly with the TJHSST Partnership Fund to help build an endowment for TJHSST. As many of you know, the school faces a significant shortage each year in funding that limits student abilities to thrive and excel, and maintaining the school's top ranking in the country. This endowment will serve as a stop-gap and long term measure to fill in the holes left in the school's wish list each year... that list contains equipment and resources that the county will not provide. Additionally, the Partnership Fund works with corporations to meet these needs. However, the school will only truly be successful if the alumni body takes part in this effort.
Therefore, I am asking each of you to make sure you are registered with an updated profile in our database system. Please encourage your friends to register and update their profiles too. This way, in 2009, we can reach out to you with this wish list, share all of the great TJ news, and build a true alumni network, surpassing anything we have done so far. We're just getting warmed up!
By updating your profile, you'll receive valuable information on the upcoming all-years reunion gala to take place next summer (2009). This will be the single largest alumni event in TJ's history!
If you are a member of the following classes: 2003, 1998, 1993 and 1988, you have a reunion coming up! Be sure to visit the Alumni Association's web site to find out more details. It is not too late to sign up or even help plan. See below...
As you may know, the Association's web site could use a face lift. We're looking for some alums to help revamp the site and the database system too. If you are willing to donate some time over the next few months, please let us know. Your fellow alums will be quite appreciative! Through a generous grant by the Partnership Fund, we will now be able to provide a significant stipend to an individual who can perform this work. Please contact Dan Soschin for more information.
Don't forget about joining our LinkedIn and FaceBook groups, too - another great way to keep in touch with your fellow alums.
Are you interested in helping plan an event or volunteer project? Let us know and we'll help spread the word. We're always searching for more volunteers to help out at the Association!
All the best,
Dan Soschin, Class of 1995
AJ Swoboda (class of 2011) has recently published a collection of college admissions essays written by seniors at TJ. "After watching my older brother go through the college application process, the idea of compiling essays written by seniors at TJ – the 'best high school in America' - and offering them to students across the county and country as a student to student resource just made sense," says author Swoboda. Proceeds of the 2nd edition of What Seniors Write at America’s Best High School will be donated to TJHSST via the Partnership Fund. You can view the book at www.whatseniorswrite.com and contact AJ via e-mail. AJ adds, "All essays were collected without direction or influence of TJHSST administration or faculty."
There are dozens, maybe hundreds of us who are all milling around in LinkedIn, not knowing that everyone else is there too! Here is a new way to catch up and network with old friends! Please follow the link below to request membership in this group. At this time, the group is only open to alumni and teachers. The TJ Alumni Database will be our means of confirming your identity as a former student so please be sure to update your entry in the Alumni Database before you join! If you aren't already a member of LinkedIn, this is the perfect time to sign up! Spread the word, forward this to anyone you know who might not receive the TJAA emails! Here's the link. Thanks to Jenny Cameron ('94) for managing this group.
If you're on Facebook, then you probably already know about the TJ group, open to current students and alumni. To join simply search for the group on Facebook and click "join". There are 2000+ members already! The group is administered by board members and fellow alums Rachana Bhide ('97) and Nikhil Sinha ('01).
If you are a member of one of the above classes and would like to be a part of your class's reunion committee or would like more information about your reunion, visit the reunion's page online. The events are currently being planned, so stay tuned for additional information.
2003 5-Year Reunion
Reunion Bar Night
McFaddens in DC
Friday, November 28th, 8-11 PM
Facebook Event Page: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=29573593162.
1998 10-Year Reunion
Contact Di Johnston or Trevor Burner for more information about your reunion.
The Tentative Event Schedule:
Friday, November 28, 2008 - Reunion Bar Night
Saturday, November 29, 2008 - Reunion Picnic @ TJHSST
Saturday, November 29, 2008 - Reunion Formal Event
Purchase your tickets by Nov 21st!
http://www.tjhsstalumni.org/classpages/98/
1993 15-Year Reunion
Please e-mail or join our Facebook group to keep up-to-date as plans progress or if you'd like to help. Becky Earle Middleton is your class organizer.
15 Year Reunion Picnic
The reunion took place on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at Fort Hunt Park, Alexandria, VA...Click Here for More Details
1988 20-Year Reunion
Contact Pete Thomas if you are interested in planning or attending your reunion.
Got yourself hitched? Now a parent? Became the CEO of xyz.com? Phd? Got high score on Tetris? Tell us about it... your classmates want to know! Please send us an e-mail.
Ravi Shankar '92, along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal have edited Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East and Beyond.
Diana (Clough) Benton '03 got married in December and is serving in the US Army in Germany right now.
Kassie (Dove) McMahon '90 and her husband Matt will be celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary on October 11th and welcoming their first child in early November
Sandra Beasley '98 won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize for her poetry collection Theories of Falling. The book was published in April 2008 by New Issues Poetry & Prose.
Dawn (Heineman) Findley '94 and her husband, Kip,
announce the birth of their first child, Garrett Ryan,
on June 6, 2007.
Masha Herbst '96 married Jeremy Richart in an October 2007 Shenandoah Valley wedding, and then moved to Afghanistan to work for the government.
Philip Larson '96 was married to Martine Lamotte on March 15, 2008. Phil successfully passed the Virginia Bar in April and will begin business school at Chicago GSB this fall.
Kimberly Taylor '91 finally finished her Ph.D. in Biophysics in 2005 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Badgers!). She's currently living and working in Galveston, TX.
Chris Russell '03 and Thara Gorur '03 were married in March.
Think we should highlight someone you know? Did you get married, have a child or do you have other significant news? Just drop us a line and let us know! Please send us an e-mail.
Please note that there is a commercial organization that has no affiliation with TJ and is not sanctioned by the school or the Alumni Association. They operate a for-profit ".com". While you are certainly welcome to leverage that web site, there's only one place to receive important class news, reunion information, event information, and locate the most comprehensive list of alumni - http://www.tjhsstalumni.org. Bookmark us today!
Alumni input and involvement is always welcome and TJ could use your help in a variety of ways. TJ is always looking for athletic coaches and mentors. There are also a variety of committees that are interested in active alumni participation: Curriculum Committee, Diversity Committee, Student Services Committee, Climate Committee. Please contact TJ Principal, Dr. Evan Glazer for more information.
Please include TJHSST as part of your annual philanthropy. Alumni financial support is needed to support student research at TJ. Visit the Technology Labs and classrooms at TJ today and you will find some of the same equipment that supported your own research when you were in high school. Alumni have a vital role to play in meeting this objective. Demonstrating that a large percentage of alumni financially support TJ’s educational foundation is critical to secure large gifts. Your participation is important, and every gift is valuable - no matter how large or small. Please demonstrate your support for TJ by contributing. You can make your donation online at www.TJpartnershipfund.org.
In 1999, parents and community business leaders founded the TJHSST Partnership Fund, Inc., a private non–profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization to forge strategic partnerships and foster long-term community, alumni, and family commitments to our school. The mission of the Partnership Fund is to build an Endowment for Excellence to provide a stable and permanent funding source to protect TJ's world-class student research laboratories from the unpredictable fiscal challenges of state and local government funding. The Partnership Fund keeps an on-campus TJHSST Partnership Fund office and Mr. Gary Bottorff serves as the Director, Corporate and Community Relations. www.TJpartnershipfund.org.
Visit the TJ Alumni web site for more news and information, updated regularly!
- Discussion boards
- Catch up on news and information related to the school
- Update your contact information in the database
- Search for classmates
President - Dan Soschin '95
Past-President - Jay Briar '94
Treasurer - Suzzette Rodriguez Hurley '94
Secretary - Nikhil Sinha '01
At-Large - Todd Burner '95
At-Large - Rachana Bhide '97
At-Large - Steven Cereghino '91
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