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She doesn’t get back nearly as much as she’d like, so Emily (Klopf) Gardner crammed in as much as she could during her two post-graduation visits to campus.
“The first time I came back after graduation was actually post the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, and it was an exploratory trip with the designers at BMW to see if we could partner with the Paralympic wheelchair team to improve their wheelchairs for the 2016 Rio Olympics,” says MillerCoors’ New York-based local and national media manager.
“One of my majors was Recreation, Sport & Tourism and I became friends with and had many classes with these athletes, including one of my professors. It was really special to be able to return ‘home’ and on that project in particular.
“The next time I came back was for the Comeback Award, homecoming weekend (2017), which was also very special. The first thing I did upon return was drive down Green Street to see how much of it has changed.
“You can then think back to all the places you went to on Green Street and it is literally a trip down memory lane. Whether it was a bar like Station, standing on the corner freezing waiting to get in on a busy Saturday night. Or heading to White Horse for penny pitchers on a Monday when you finished all of your finals, but weren’t going home until Friday or seeing that one restaurant you went to for a ‘nice’ dinner was still there or an old apartment you or your friends lived in is still around.
“The street still has the smell of stale beer and fried food and the sounds of friends laughing after an evening out or the sigh of relief finishing that accounting mid-term.”
