Record numbers for Brussels and Paris receptions
Over 120 alumni living and working in Brussels and Paris joined us at the end of February for alumni receptions in the capital cities.
As our alumni population overseas increases, we are keen to ensure that the Sussex network remains strong wherever you are located. Our virtual networks on Linked In and Facebook are growing daily; and we now have over 200 alumni consuls (graduates who volunteer to be a contact for other alumni or prospective students overseas) listed on our webpages. We are also looking forward to meeting alumni in a number of countries this year including Switzerland, China and the Hong Kong SAR, Spain, and the United States.
In Brussels we were delighted to welcome back many alumni who had attended events in previous years as well as meet very recent graduates who had already secured jobs in the city. The majority of guests had been in the School of European Studies, now part of the Global Studies faculty, with languages, international relations, sociology and politics being the courses most frequently taken.
Four of our alumni consuls (pictured) attended and are really enthusiastic about helping to organise future networking events in Brussels – do get in touch with them if you’d like to volunteer to help; act as a speaker or just come along and join in!
(Left to right: Stephanie Ridley, Greta Hopkins, Jeffrey Turk and Benjamin Barton)
Christopher Burghardt (EURO 1992) helped us to welcome fellow alumni and afterwards summed up his thoughts on the event: ‘The University of Sussex has come a long way in the past 50 years and it has shaped the lives of its students in meaningful ways. Continuing this tradition is critical and giving back to the University is part of ensuring this legacy continues. The Brussels alumni group was out in force to make that statement, show the value the University brought to them and we are all very proud to be able to support the growth of the University for the next 50 years.’
Inaugural Paris reception
We were overwhelmed with the response to our first ever alumni reception in Paris, held at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré and hosted by Robert (Bob) Gillespie OBE (pictured below).
Over 70 guests were delighted to discover that so many former Sussex students were located in and around Paris and plans are already afoot for an
informal get together in an übercool bar, recently opened by an alumnus, as well as another event at the Cercle Interalliée in November, hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing.
Alumni attending included Diane Abraham (HUMS 1961) who was one of the first 50 students to be accepted at Sussex when it opened in 1961 and Sophie Banette (MAPS 1995) with her husband Steve Cox (CPES 1993), who met whilst studying at Sussex.
We’ll post details of new events on the Sussex Alumni Network pages on Facebook and Linked In and if you would like us to send you further details please do get in touch with our events team on at events@sussex.ac.uk