Every year, our campus reunites the alumni, students, faculty members and the rest of the community of all the campuses of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico to commemorate and honor the founders of our campus, “where it all began”.If you read the books about the “History of the University,” you can learn about how the founders John W. Harris and his wife Eunice White Harris started their journey to a school for educating the men and women of San German. They provided free education and as an exchange, students worked in the construction of the buildings, cultivating products, and cooking meals for all the students and faculty. Like every other year, we commemorate and remember the beginning of our university. One way to re-live and see our story is to visit the John W. Harris’ museum and the president’s house “Casa María.”
As a proud tiger, we celebrated the anniversary of our campus starting with the “Baile de Aniversario del Centro de Estudiantes” on Thursday, where students represented the different student organizations. During the Baile de Aniversario event, the queen and king of the student center were chosen. This year, our very own HC-InterSG Editor-in’Chief and campus correspondent, Nashalí Galarza, was chosen the 2018 queen of the “Baile de Aniversario”.
On Friday, there were many events, including: the Presentation of the book “The History of the University: Part III”, the inauguration of the Research Center at the Lola Rodriguez de Tió Museum, the designation of the Central Avenue Rafael Zapata –which is the main road on our campus-. Then, we closed with a bohemian night with the band “L’Karaya” enjoying amazing food and great conversations.
On Saturday, we had simultaneous events on campus: Family day, Alumni Assembly, Museum Tours, and the Bicycle Race. But this year, the Student Councils of all the campuses of “La Inter” had the Expo called “Inter Presente” where they showed their humanitarian work for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
On Sunday, we ended our celebrations with the Religious Service and the Acts of the Commemoration of the Founders. For me, it’s the most significant and precious event of all the Founders Weekend because of the many inspiring speeches by our campus chancellor, the University’s president, Board of Trustees’ president and the Alumni Association president. In addition, the University Choir and the public sing the four official anthems of our university. Finally, we all went to a brunch and we said our goodbyes to our amazing friends from other campuses.
In conclusion, I enjoyed these events so much; I reconnected with some of my friends and reunited with some of my former professors. I’ve been attending this event since my freshman year and I love it since then, because I learn so much about the history of our campus and get to meet some amazing people.This is one of biggest reasons that I love my alma mater.