More than 40 former and current fellows converged in Washington from around the globe with partners and institute friends and supporters who reminisced the past, brainstormed about the future, reforged old connections, made new ones and generally had fun.
Kicking off the weekend’s events, returning David Mixner Fellow Edric Huang delivered his fellowship report about LGBTQ+ issues in Taiwan at the Human Rights Campaign. Then he joined an expert panel moderated by board chair Fabrice Houdart.
The reunion began on Friday, Nov. 14 when distinguished alumni convened at the House of Sweden in Georgetown for a remarkable day of discussions about key global issues, drawing connections between their many different fields and fellowship experiences. It was terrific!
Later, former fellow and trustee Bacete Bwogo led a rollicking performance of South Sudanese music at the Cosmos Club before the centenary dinner featuring keynote speaker Serge Schmemann, with former fellow and trustee Andrew Weil joining by video.
On Saturday morning, alumni gathered to discuss the past and future, with breakout sessions developing recommendations for alumni engagement, fundraising, fellowship topics and recruiting candidates to prepare for the next hundred years.
In the afternoon, former fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds led a fascinating discussion about piano etudes together with a moving virtuoso performance by the New York Philharmonic pianist Eric Huebner.
After all the hard work and serious listening… an ICWA quiz game with cocktails!
We capped off the weekend with an alumni dinner featuring fellows speaking and reading some of their excerpts from the new anthology of institute writing over the last century. Thank you so much to everyone who made the 100th birthday bash absolutely spectacular!
Quiz game
Institute introspection
Alumni dinner
Centenary team
