Alyssa Lloyd ’26 grew up in Reardan, Washington, a farming town of about 650 people, and arrived at Princeton with a penchant for serving others. This calling continues to shape her work today. As a Princeton ReachOut 56-81-06 Domestic Fellow, Lloyd supports young adults who are exiting foster care, the subject of her senior thesis. Lloyd credits both her hometown and Princeton for fueling her ambitions: “I have two homes — the farming town that taught me to dream and the university that proved dreams are possible.”

Tomorrow, alumni and friends across the globe will celebrate Princeton’s 280th birthday online and at gatherings in their region. This year, Orange & Black Day also serves as the grand finale of the yearlong 200th anniversary of the Alumni Association.

Some alumni are showing their Princeton pride by standing up for higher education. The University’s Stand Up team will join the Princeton Alumni Association of Houston on Orange & Black Day to present “How to Turn Your Princeton Pride Into Meaningful Action.” Hosted by Olga Lara ’81, attendees will learn how to become advocates for Princeton and higher education and gain tools and frameworks for engaging in thoughtful public dialogue, responding to common critiques of higher education, and telling their unique higher education stories.

Alumni have supported Princeton from the earliest days of the University; becoming an advocate for higher education is a timely way to continue that tradition. If your regional, affinity, class or APGA group is interested in scheduling a Stand Up session, email standup@princeton.edu.

• The Washington Post laid out the true cost of college to families on average at 2,100 schools throughout the United States. The story provides a sense of what students are actually paying for their education with the benefit of financial aid programs, and highlights Princeton’s financial aid program as one of the top in the country for providing the most aid.
• The New York Times found that the National Science Foundation ended the fiscal year without distributing $1.4 billion of the research funding Congress had allocated to it. That’s 19 percent of the NSF’s primary research budget unspent. The statistic highlights the funding challenges facing researchers and universities as they work to carry out our core mission of teaching and generating new knowledge through research.
• The Association of American Universities details the ways in which quantum research has transformed medicine and daily life in the United States, and the expansion of the NSF-funded Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes program, including one at Princeton to address “the fabrication and manufacturing of core components for quantum processors.”

How are you standing up?

Share your success stories with us and we’ll feature them in future editions of this newsletter. Email us at standup@princeton.edu.

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