USD Magazine Fall 2007

HOW TO SPOT A TORERO Well, the cape should be a dead giveaway ... [ s c h o o l s p i r i t ] H ave you ever watched the sun go down from the USD campus and experience for years,” Evenskaas says. “These types of traditions are the core of our university.”

Then there’s the event that may seem kind of geeky at first blush, but turns out to form lasting bonds: the square dance, which has brought freshmen together during OrientationWeek (now called “Torero Days”) since the 1980s. “We have a lot of alumni who tell us, ‘I met my husband at the square dance’ or ‘I met my best friend the night of the square dance,’” Evenskaas says. The project to compile favorite alumni experiences is aimed at ensuring traditions get passed down from one generation of Toreros to the next. Alumni came up with dozens of suggestions, and the list was narrowed for the poster. New activities are also on the list. Students will be exhorted to learn the new USD Fight Song and to wear “Torero blue” on Fridays. But it’s not all about showing school spirit. What self-respecting Torero hasn’t made a late-night run for Mexican food? For a longer list of USD traditions or to submit your own, go to alumni.sandiego.edu.

felt a part of something bigger? It turns out that watching a sun- set from somewhere on Alcalá Park is a very Torero experience. Helping newbies to campus find out about such uniquely USD hap- penings is the aim of a poster given to freshmen and transfer students this fall. They’ll learn that “You’re a true Torero once you’ve ... attended Mass in Founders Chapel” or “ ... stuffed your face at Finals Feeding Frenzy” or “ ... put off studying to go to the beach.” “We have so many great tradi- tions at USD, but we have not been deliberate about acknowl- edging and promoting them,” explains Sarah Evenskaas ’97, ’03, associate director of Alumni Relations. Seeing the sunset from campus turns out to be one that evokes the fondest of memories over the years. While the spot to see it frommay change with the decades, the experience is one that stays. Even more memorable is mak- ing a difference: “Involvement in student organizations and community service has been an important part of the USD student

MARSHALL WILLIAMS

S I S T ER PAT SHAF F ER adv i s e s t h e Founde r s Cl ub, wh i c h i s devo ted to ke ep i ng t h e s p i ri t o f t h e un i ve r s i t y ’s founde r s a l i ve.

Youth Club’s members have gone to college and six of them have graduated from USD. Founders Club membership keeps on giving after graduation. Graduates are invited to join the Alumni Association of the Sacred Heart. In 2007 alone, six graduates became AASH members, and 44 have joined in total. On campus, Shaffer tells prospective members that the Founders Club is a rich source of community while they’re students and for the rest of their lives. RebekahWeiss agrees with her former mentor. The club helped her build her own community at USD, and to give back in ways that enlarged her own understanding. Her experience confirms that the Sacred Heart still beats.

members of the women’s varsity basketball team to give a tour of the Jenny Craig Pavilion. Biology majors showed them the labs at the Donald P. Shiley Science Center for Science and Technology. Admissions coun- selors briefed them on college admissions: the courses they’d need, SAT scores, GPAs, essays and other essentials. “You could see them growing through the weekend,”Weiss remembers. “At the beginning they were so shy, then they start- ed talking about their hopes and their dreams.”The club’s aim with the Mecca youth is not to recruit for USD, but simply to enlarge the students’ knowledge of what’s possible. Since the club started its visits, more than half of the

DAN BEIGEL

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FALL 2007