VAN Activities

•  Visitors

•  Tyler in Greece

•  VAN Contact Program

Visitors: I spent some time catching up with 2005 Photography grad Jared Swift, who is back in school at VU, working on his degree in Nursing! I owe you a lunch, Jared; just give me a call when you're available. And if anyone else in the VAN is visiting campus and wants to meet up for lunch, drop me an email or give me a call. Weekends are crazy busy for me now as we prepare for our twin sons' graduation from VU and our eldest son's upcoming marriage in the Chapel. But I can usually get away from the office during the week and would love to visit with you.

Tyler in Greece: VAN student assistant Tyler Tappendorf spent a very interesting Spring Break in Europe! I asked him to share his story with you.

“It's no doubt that during my time at Valpo one of the things I gained a passion for is traveling. After studying abroad in Namibia, it seemed that all I could think about was jetting off to the next foreign country where I could start another adventure. Luckily, Valpo's two week spring break gave me just that opportunity this year. After planning for over a year and making sure we were traveling on a college student's budget, myself and three of my best friends at Valpo set off for a trip to Europe to cap off our senior year. With only one backpack each, we began our trip with a quick stopover in London before heading off to our main destination, Greece. We found a cheap “floating hostel” online and were able to see so many different places over the course of eight days on our “cruise”. We started in Ancient Corinth, before heading off to Olympia, Delphi, the island of Ithaca, and Aegina. From visiting ancient sites to riding motorbikes around the small towns to hiking up mountains, the experience was amazing. We finished off Greece with three days in Athens before heading to Barcelona for our final four days. Here we stayed in hostels while just taking in the great atmosphere and architecture of Spain and even being able to use a little of our Spanish. The whole trip was definitely an adventure, but more importantly it was a great finale to four great years at Valpo. There's no doubt I'm going to miss this place when I graduate in a few weeks, but this trip reminded me that no matter how far I am from campus, the friends and family of Valpo will always be close. “

VAN's Contact Program: This week we mailed to you the fourth batch of admitted students assigned to VAN liaisons. This list included students admitted in January 2008. Over 1,000 of our admitted students have been matched up with you to date! Don't forget to email, call, or send in the mail to me comments from your conversations so that I can pass them on to the admission counselor and enter the info in the student's electronic file. Thanks!