Bay Area alumni events ease transition

Like many people who move to a new city, when Janine Corcoran, CHS ’96, relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area eight years ago, she says she found herself having difficulty meeting people and was looking for a way to connect.

“I had been to alumni events when I lived in New Jersey, and I found it to be a good way,” she says.
So, in her new surroundings, Corcoran figured that attending another alumni event would allow her to meet people who shared a common thread and to get settled in the city.

It worked. 

Corcoran says she enjoyed the event so much that shortly after she attended her first Bay area club party, she volunteered to host the events as an alumni club coordinator. As coordinator, she says, other transplanted alumni in similar situations contact her for the same reason she reached out.

“I get e-mails from new residents who don’t know anyone and want to start to meet people,” she says. “It’s always interesting to bring people together.”

Corcoran, who works for the Stanford University Athletic Department in sponsorship sales, says the UD get-togethers draw a variety of alumni. “We have young graduates and alumni from 1923 that come to the events,” she says.

Regardless of age, sporting events are always the most popular, and Corcoran says she tries to plan events for when UD teams play other colleges in the area.

“One of our most successful events ever was when the UD men’s basketball team came out,” she says. “We had probably more than 100 people there.”

— Laura Overturf Stetser AS ’99