Andrews Academy Alumni
News & Announcements

July 2025

Welcome to our newest alumni, AA Class of 2025!

We are looking forward to hosting AA Alumni weekend on October 17 & 18! The main events will be on Sabbath, October 18. Career Seminars presented by alumni for current students are held on Friday morning. There will also be a Friday vespers with s'mores afterwards outside by Sunshine Hall (weather permitting).

Plan to attend all of our events and catch up with classmates. In case there are any updates to the weekend's schedule, please visit our reunion information page before alumni weekend. Events are hosted at the Academy unless otherwise stated. Some honor classes may have additional gatherings to attend. Many of the honor classes have a Facebook group page where classmates may be planning activities for the weekend. See our list of FB groups for links. If we don't have yours listed, please reply to this email and let us know.

• Friday, October 17: 8-11 AM - Convocation and Career Seminar Presentations by alumni for current student body

• Friday, October 17: 7 PM - Vespers by Class of 2005, followed by s'mores outside of Sunshine Hall (weather permitting)

• Sabbath, October 18: 10 AM - Tribute Sabbath School & Alumni Proceedings (Roll Call)

• Sabbath, October 18: 11:30 AM - Alumni Worship Convocation: Speaker TBD (Class of 2000)

• Sabbath, October 18: 12:45 PM - Honored Class Alumni Photos & Haystack Luncheon (food provided) - Honor Classes will have a classroom to meet in for lunch and the afternoon.

• Sabbath, October 18: 2-6 PM - Academy building open for extended visiting.

• Saturday night, October 18: 8 PM - Shydepoke Basketball Games (Andreasen Center for Wellness, AU)

• Sunday, October 19: 9 AM - Sharon Russell Memorial Walk (AU Campus - starting at AA parking lot)

Sabbath School and church are typically live-streamed on AA's YouTube channel. If you are unable to join us in person, please join us virtually!

If you do not receive the above postcard in the next month or so, we may not have your current mailing address. Please email AAalumni@andrews.edu with your updated information so that we can keep in touch. Thank you!

Alumnus of the Year Nominees Needed

2024 Honor Class Photos, Alumni of the Year, and Teacher Legacy Award

See our Facebook page for the 2024 honor class photos, as well as photos of the Alumni of the Year (Marjorie (McClure) & John Eggers '59), and Teacher Legacy Award recipient (John Reichert, '87-'14).

Alumni Weekend 2024 - Convocation and Career Seminars

Friday, October 18, 2024, was the beginning of Andrews Academy’s alumni weekend. Hundreds of alumni returned to remember the fun times at AA and to renew friendships with each other and with our God.

The weekend started with Convocation in the chapel for the current Academy students. The senior class of 2025 led in the song service and the pledge of allegiance. Ruben Perez-Schulz, AA Principal, welcomed everyone to convocation. Sarah (Gane) Burton from the class of 2009 presented the address. She shared some insights from her high school, college, and adult life as she is “wandering” throughout her life, drawing lessons from Abraham’s wandering in his life. Everyone also sang the school song.

After Convocation, the students then went to various classrooms to participate in Career Seminars. Based on their interests, students were able to sign up to attend two career presentations of their choice. This was a great opportunity for students to explore possible career choices as Andrews Academy alumni shared insights about their careers. For example, Bruce Cameron (’69) presented on being a religious liberty lawyer, while Christine (Tedjasukmana) Lee (’99) presented on being a nurse/public health practitioner.

This was the fifth year of also having a Career Fair as part of Friday's events. Half of the gymnasium had booths that helped explain more about various careers, many of which had interactive activities. Various departments from AU, the community, and alumni were represented in these booths. Thank you to our Guidance Counselor, Leslie Nieves, and everyone else who made this a successful opportunity for students to learn more about careers.

Please go out of your way to thank Tonya Snyder and Gina Meekma for an excellent program on Friday and for planning alumni weekend. And thank you to a whole host of volunteers for stepping in to help make this weekend possible!

Alumni Weekend 2024 - Friday Vespers

Friday night's vespers (October 18, 2024) was presented by Andrews Academy's class of 2004. Attendees had a great time of singing familiar hymns. Dr. Daniel Bedney shared on the theme, “It’s been too long…. It’s time to be restored.” 

Thank you, AA Class of 2004, for presenting the Friday evening vespers.
Members of various classes stayed after the program for more than an hour, catching up on what has happened in their lives and that of their classmates. Some gathered around the campfire by the new benches given by the class of 2023. As they stood around the fire and talked, they also enjoyed some s'mores. It was a fun evening of sharing and remembering their time together at AA.

Alumni Weekend 2024 - Shydepoke

The traditional Shydepoke game was a basketball game held in the AU gymnasium (October 19, 2024). Since Shydepoke’s inception in 1960, it was a flag football game. However, since it is no longer an option to use the high school football field, where it was traditionally held, the University’s field was transformed into a soccer field, and the Academy field does not have lighting, for the second year it was decided to have basketball games. There was a lot of excitement during the games that had many more players and a larger audience compared to recent years. 

The female alumni vs students’ game was won by the alumni 21 to 16, with the alumni taking the lead early in the game. The male alumni vs students' game had the AA students taking an early lead, but the alumni tied it up in the last few seconds of the fourth period. In over time, the school then took a lead and won the game to 66 to 55. Everyone had a lot of fun. 

The Doug Newberry most valuable player award went to Noah Fitzpatrick, and the Lydia Chong most valuable player award went to Anabel Dockerty. These awards are named after two PE teachers from the 1980s.

Some Shydepoke history: In 1960, the Andrews Academy Shydepoke tradition began during the principalship of Knobby Mauro. At that point, there was only one game for the males. In the 1980s, the female and then male games became a tradition. The name “Shydpoke,” which is a term from the south meaning a “get together social event,” was chosen. Also, during the Mauro's principalship a challenge was presented to the students to come up with a name for the school teams. Gordon Johns, from the class of 1966, came up with the name “Acumen.” His goal was to scan the dictionary for a unique and meaningful name, and he only go to the “ac” of the dictionary when he found this word. Acumen means “the ability to make good judgments and quick decisions, typically in a particular domain.” He won the $10 prize for this.

Thank you, coaches, referees, announcers, and fans for making this a fun and successful alumni event.

Many classes also have Facebook pages/groups to communicate and share information with each other, including alumni plans. Click on the button below to see the page of links. If your class isn't listed but you have a page/group, please let us know. If you'd like us to set up a group for your class, please let us know that also.

2024-25 events include England Tour, Backpacking Trip, Spring Concerts, Music Tours, Feast of Lights, and much more!