Alex Kern is a Spanish and English double major from Charlotte, North Carolina. She hopes to one day teach Spanish.

Dear Wofford College (and everyone that makes it what it is),

When I was younger, my mom gave me a formula for how to write thank you notes after each of my birthday parties.

First, she told me, you need to say thank you for coming to the party. So, Wofford, I thank you very sincerely for letting us, the class of 2015, come to the party that has been these past four years. It has been a roller coaster ride in the very best of ways and I am grateful for every single up and every single down. A four year party may seem like a long time, but pull any graduating senior aside and they will tell you that moving into Marsh, Greene and Carlisle seems like yesterday. As a weekend of celebrating our past four years is rapidly approaching, it seems only right to look back on all that we have accomplished and thank the people and the place that made the party possible.

Now onto what’s next in the formula: say thank you for the gift you were given, and tell them how excited you are to put it to use. Wofford, it is nearly impossible to describe in words the gifts you have given each of us. To Wofford’s campus and the people who work hard every day to maintain it, thank you. Thank you for the gift that is being able to take in your beauty every day. Thank you for being picture worthy in snow and in sunshine, and even in the middle of the night as we walk back to our rooms from Milliken. To our Wofford professors, it is safe to say that we cannot thank you enough. Thank you for your expertise, passion and understanding. Thank you for broadening our minds every day we sat in your classrooms, and thank you for pushing us to be our best. You have challenged us, inspired us and forever impacted us. For all of this and more, I know the class of 2015 is forever grateful for all of you. The knowledge you have instilled in us is immeasurable and includes such an array of subject matters. Thank you for this invaluable gift – our futures will no doubt shine brighter because of it. I hate to generalize, but to every person that works for this institution, thank you. The work you do, in any capacity, impacts the culture of this campus, a culture that we love and will miss terribly once we walk outside Wofford’s gate. Thank you for establishing a culture of acceptance, diversity, encouragement, growth, kindness and inclusion. Thank you for working hard to pro- mote student endeavors and organizations. Thank you for keeping us safe and keeping us healthy. Thank you for encouraging us and checking in on us whether we are on campus or on the other side of the world. Whether it be smiling and providing words of encouragement as you staple our papers in the library, or working day in and day out to make sure we all have housing each year, we cannot thank you enough.