New College of Florida Welcomes New Alumnae/i Coordinator Sarah Thompson

July 26, 2011— The New College Alumnae/i Association (NCAA) welcomed its fifth alumnae/i coordinator, Sarah Thompson ’06, to the Association staff on July 5, 2011. Thompson replaces Morgan Boecher, who had held the position since June 2010.

Thompson has been enjoying her new post. “It’s been a great learning opportunity and I feel it will provide me with a lot of valuable work skills that will carry over to future professional endeavors,” she says. “I am beyond grateful to New College and to Jessica Rogers for offering a position like this to recent grads.”

Thompson graduated from New College of Florida in May of 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in literature/Spanish language and culture. In June 2009 Sarah traveled to Buenos Aires where she took classes in Spanish and completed a month-long internship with Las Abuelas de Plaza De Mayo, an organization that helps reunite families separated as a result of the Dirty War, a period of state-sponsored violence between 1976 and 1983. Learning about the affect of the military dictatorship on each individual’s personal life helped inform the writing of her thesis on the public image of the dictator in Latin American fiction.

During her time at New College, Thompson worked at the Writing Resource Center as a student writing assistant, helping students improve their writing through one-on-one sessions using active listening techniques. In that position she hosted several writing workshops, gave in-class presentations and co-organized a seminar on active listening techniques for the All Power to the Imagination Conference. In addition, Thompson volunteered at the Literacy Council of Sarasota, where she helped a Spanish-speaking adult master the English language.

Thompson is currently in the process of applying for a Fulbright scholarship to Argentina which, if awarded, would begin in March 2013.

Previous Alumnae/i Coordinator Morgan Boecher left to pursue his master’s degree in social work at Columbia University. He was accepted into the Social Enterprise and Administration’s Management Fellows Program, a specialization program for people who want to focus their work on a systems and organizational level. Boecher plans to become a mental health counselor working with underrepresented populations including the LGBTQ community. He is looking forward to becoming an active member of the New College alumnae/i network in New York.

The alumnae/i coordinator position was established in May 2007 by the NCAA as an opportunity for a recent New College graduate to learn and develop skills that will benefit his or her future career and life passions. During their tenure, alumnae/i coordinators serve as ambassadors and liaisons between students and young alumnae/i and the Association.

The mission of the New College Alumnae/i Association is to promote communication among alumnae/i and between alumnae/i and New College, to sponsor programs, activities and events for alumnae/i, to advise the president of New College of Florida and the president of the New College Foundation of alumnae/i concerns, and to leverage and deploy the talent, knowledge, enthusiasm and financial resources of the alumnae/i to support New College in carrying out its educational mission.

For more information, contact the vice president of alumnae/i affairs Jessica Rogers at [email protected] or call (941) 487-4900.