Alumni Board Member and Alumni Symposium creator Rosemary Oelrich Choate '63 of Pasadena is no ordinary alumni volunteer. Her outstanding efforts for students and alumni span decades and have touched almost all Pomona alumni in some form or another.

As president of the Alumni Association in 1989-90, Choate helped initiate two programs that have evolved into staples of Alumni Weekend programming: the Alumni Symposium and the Alumni Distinguished Service Award. The symposium, an opportunity for alumni to gather for topical and intellectually challenging conversations, was conceived and created by Choate, who organizes and oversees each symposium, even today. As president, she was also instrumental in the creation of the Distinguished Service Award to recognize outstanding volunteers for the College. In addition to the initiatives of her Alumni Board years, Choate has volunteered for the College in a variety of other ways--such as serving on the nine-person Admissions Committee for four years in the 1980s--and she continues to lend her help whenever needed.

With such a long record of active involvement, Choate still finds many rewards in her myriad responsibilities. "I've made life-long friends with an amazing cross-section of talented and intelligent people: alumni of many different generations, as well as faculty and staff," says Choate. In fact, her alumni friends and connections come in handy for her volunteer roles, which most recently involve finding presenters for the Alumni Symposium.

But Choate says the reasons for her ongoing commitment to alma mater have to do with a special relationship between members of the Pomona alumni community. "Everyone who has passed through the gates of Pomona was drawn to the College at a specific time and for specific reasons," she explains. "My sense is that we share an affinity, simply by responding to Pomona's pull, that puts us all on common ground as we participate in the life of the College. We are all kinsmen of sorts."