Austin Simmons ’90 routinely describes Grinnell as a winning lottery ticket. “It was pure luck that I ended up there,” he says. “Grinnell was everything I needed.”
Giving
![Students walking on MAC field in the spring](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20150430spring231%20975x455.jpg?itok=rRNvVWNG)
Topics relevant to the larger student and alumni community were the focus of discussion sessions between the Alumni Council and College administrators during the council’s March meeting on campus.
![Rebecca Wong ’17 canoeing](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Rebecca%20Wong%20542665%20WEB.jpg?itok=ziO-5dJt)
In his 48 years of life, physics professor Sujeev Wickramasekara made an immeasurable impact on his peers and his students.
![Peter Calvert ’79 and Linh Pham chat in the JRC Grill](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Peter%20and%20Linh%20Pham%20WEB.jpg?itok=J4c8zqIZ)
In 2014, the Alumni Student Connections Committee of the College’s Alumni Council initiated a project to facilitate mentoring relationships between alumni and current students.
![Penny Bender Sebring ’64 and her husband, Charles Ashby Lewis](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/CAL%20PBS%20Head%20Shot%202015%20WEB.jpg?itok=N3pC9RiU)
![Alumni Council](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Unknown%20weB.jpg?itok=8pqs11Ue)
This fall’s Alumni Council gathering focused primarily on two key issues occupying Grinnell at the moment, diversity and inclusion, and “Global Grinnell.”
![Ishan Bhadkamkar ’13](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Ishan2%20975x455.jpg?itok=1P10ltAy)
"Grinnell was such a big part of my life that I don’t want my connection with the school to end."
![Group photo of Alumni Council](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/alumnicouncil.jpg?itok=aJiLLgqQ)
Grinnell’s Alumni Council creates new Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
![Jim Holbrook speaks to the class of 1966](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20160602reunion66class24%20975x455.jpg?itok=W4XrDaTX)
The class of 1966’s 50th Reunion gift of $3.6 million is the largest such gift in the history of the College.
It started with strangers on a train — very seldom does one get to say that anymore.