他们保留了柏油脚跟的传统
四十年来, the blue-blazered members of the 钟楼骑士团 have formed connections through service.
你在足球比赛前或大学纪念日上见过他们, students wearing Carolina Blue blazers and ascots or ties with a distinctive Bell Tower motif. 他们是 钟楼骑士团, the oldest Carolina 校友 student group and the official ambassadors and tradition keepers of the University.
“They have one of the most engaged alumni bodies for their organization,玛西·利莫尔说, 卡罗莱纳校友学院的充实项目主任. “该组织的存在是为了保持卡罗莱纳的传统.”
The way the order’s members do that has changed over the 44 years of the group’s history. 1980年获特许, the 钟楼骑士团 has helped host visitors to the chancellor’s box at Carolina football games and served up breakfast (Waffles at Wilson or Biscuits at the Bell Tower) on University Day. They also offer “care packages” of snacks and other items parents can have delivered to students during exams.
But the True Blue booklet that students could stamp when they took their first sip from the Old Well or climbed the Bell Tower has been replaced by the Carolina 校友 app, where they can win prizes by clicking off up to 70 traditions.
该集团也是以服务为导向的, sponsoring a Shadow Day that allows teenagers to experience what life on a college campus is like and working together on Habitat for Humanity builds. 事实上, the very first students recruited for the order were already running an action line phone service to help answer questions about navigating campus.
“人 would call and ask, ‘How do I make an appointment at student health?’ or ‘What are the free movies showing at the Union this week?’”83岁的劳里·诺曼回忆道, director of alumni relations and annual giving at the School of 教育. Norman was a charter member of the order and an adviser for the group when she worked for the alumni association.
“I would describe it as a service-based organization that focuses on alumni and student engagement with one another. It’s just an opportunity to meet alumni that some other organizations would never have,” Norman said.
She remembered being awestruck by the alumni she met at football games, after coming early to place seat cushions in the chancellor’s box. “As a first-generation college student coming from a small town, Wilkesboro, to then meet some of these people that I knew were in the state government and in other roles — I thought that was a pretty big deal.”
Making connections with alumni and other students was one of the biggest challenges for more recent members, 比如24岁的安德鲁·斯普拉特利, who joined the organization during the pandemic and became president his senior year.
The members brainstormed ways to keep traditions alive by revamping them with socially distanced and remote options. Spratley oversaw reinventing Shadow Day under pandemic conditions. 他整理了一个庞大的电子邮件列表, asking guidance counselors across the state to promote a Zoom panel discussion to their students.
“可能有500人, 或者可能在1附近,000，因为人们一直在登录Zoom会话,斯普拉特利说. “It was much more than what I was expecting to show up on a random Tuesday night.”
Spratley, now a first-year law student at the University of South Carolina, 鼓励新生申请加入该组织. “It’s always a great group of people, if you’re looking to get involved with UNC.”
Students are invited to attend 钟楼骑士团 interest meetings at 6:30 p.m. 9月. 9月12日. 20. 活动期间将提供披萨和饮料, which will be held at the George Watts Hill 校友 Center on Stadium Drive.
