New York Alumni Chapter get-together in Times Square
“Build it and they will come”
That is the working slogan for alumni chapters of the RIAS Berlin Commission that are spreading across the United States and Germany. Borrowing the idea from the line from the Kevin Costner 1989 movie “Field of Dreams”, the RIAS Berlin Commission chapter in New York City got together for a fun meeting with 15 alumni and friends of RIAS taking part on August 23 at a newly opened pub at Times Square called Long Acre.
”It was our largest RIAS New York Alumni get-together,” said Michael Gargiulo (center), one of the New York chapter leaders who helped organize the outing. “What I took away from this is that the alumni really love RIAS and want to stay involved.”
There were many US alumni but also alumni from Germany who live in New York taking part – such as Britta Sembach and Bastian Hartig as well as US alumni who previously worked in other states – such as Viviana Hurtado. Also coming to the gathering were: Jessica Prater, Tiffany Zeno, Adam Reiss, TJ Speicher, Bryan Weakland, Scott Soloway, Kathyann Gobin and Gabe Kinder. NY-based German journalist Christina Endruschat from RTL TV in Cologne also joined the group.
“It’s a sports bar and when they learned of our connection to Germany, they put on the game between Cologne and Dortmund!” said Gargiulo.
The RIAS Berlin Commission will be holding a major alumni get-together in San Antonio, Texas at the RTDNA EIJ congress on Friday evening, September 6 from 7-8 pm in the Travis A-B room of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
There will also be a panel discussion on Saturday, September 7, from 2:00-3:30 on how U.S. reporters can get stories for their local news stations out of overseas fellowships and trips like RIAS. There will also be an alumni dinner later on Friday and an alumni breakfast on Saturday morning.
There will also be a first-ever alumni get-together in Houston on August 31 at 6:30 pm at the District 7 Grill EaDo, organized by Lane Luckie. There will be alumni get-togethers in Brussels on September 16, Cologne on September 18 and Berlin on September 25. Please write to kirschbaum@darkseagreen-dog-940501.hostingersite.com for more details on any of these get-togethers.
