The 2022-2023 National Tour is a Wrap

Written by Doug Goodnough

The 2022-2023 Alumni National Tour is a wrap.

We closed out the year with two events in Texas in late April. And the alumni turned out in force! We had more than 80 people attend our events in Dallas and Austin.

Here are some Texas takeaways:

If you’ve ever asked “Where’s the beef?” you can find it in Dallas. More specifically at the famous Knife Dallas location in Plano, which was the venue for our first event.

  • Tucker, ’75, and Margaret Watkins are recent Texas transplants. They lived in Orange County, California, for approximately 40 years before making the move to the Dallas area. Tucker was a member of the first Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program, and their son, Franklin, ’24, is completing his junior year at Hillsdale.
  • Jeff, ’84, and Shelley, ’88, Erholtz Reynolds have been living in Texas for some time. Jeff also was able to attend the National Leadership Seminar in Irving, Texas, earlier in the week. He is the senior principal consultant with Expense Reduction Analysts, which is a specialized cost and supplier management consultancy focused on delivering improved business performance to clients. Shelley is a “semi-retired” contractor who is also a Realtor in the Dallas area.
  • Erin Davis Valdez, ’01, played gracious host in Austin, with more than 50 alumni signed up for the National Tour event at the Texas Public Policy Foundation just a few blocks from the state capitol. Valdez is currently the education policy director for the Foundation, and is working closely with the Texas legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott on a new education bill. The vice president of the Hillsdale Alumni Board said Texas is home, and she is helping lead a new education alumni affinity group for the College. Anyone interested in joining can click here.
  • Fellow Alumni Board member Lucy Meckler Vander Laan, ’20, is a recent Texas transplant after living in northern California most of her life. She also worked at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, but is now employed with the Convention of States as its director of operations. The organization is working to help restore self-governance in America.
  • Nathan McClallen, ’11, was recently named athletic director at Valor Education in Buda, Texas. McClallen said he believes strongly in classical education, and the role that athletics has to play with those institutions. He previously spent eight years at Founders Classical Academy of Leander (Texas) as a coach, teacher, and athletic director. The longhorn bolo tie he was sporting at the National Tour event was his silent endorsement of how he feels about living in Texas.

So many interesting alumni are living in the Lone Star State! In fact, I was able to talk to a few more remarkable graduates during my time there, so look for those stories in the coming months of the White & Blue.

Although this year’s National Tour is completed, we are already gearing up for next year’s slate. We have another ambitious schedule planned, and although we are still finalizing our slate, here are the cities we are planning to visit in 2023-2024:

  • Cleveland, Ohio
  • Columbus, Ohio
  • South Bend, Indiana
  • Toledo, Ohio
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • Nashville, Tennessee
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Detroit, Michigan
  • San Diego, California
  • Austin, Texas
  • Phoenix, Arizona
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Los Gatos, California
  • Somers, Connecticut
  • Lakeland, Florida

Look for more details coming soon! If you live in one of these areas, we would love to see you!

Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.

 

 

 

Published in May 2023