MU| F e a t u r e s
S
“
sshhhhhhhhh!”
Kylee Rosenbaum ’11 and her
college friends kept their voices down
when they floated on the Eel River.
She realizes now they didn’t need
to. Who really cared whether college students
used inner tubes to float the river from Liberty
Mills back to campus? They thought they were
probably breaking rules, which made it more
exciting, says Rosenbaum. Better yet, floating at
night “added that creepy factor.”
River floats are a good college memory for
Rosenbaum, now the director of alumni relations
at Manchester.
In recent years, the alumni office has connected
current MU students to the river with the annual
Sophomore Float. The float was launched by
former alumni director Jennifer Mitchell ’84
Shepherd as a way for sophomores to regroup as
a class and rekindle their first-year camaraderie.
Faculty and staff led rafts on the float, sometimes
engaging in friendly competitions and singing
along the way. It ended with a picnic on campus.
“I loved the Sophomore Float,” says junior
Kelleen Cullison, who participated in 2017.
“The whole experience helped me reconnect with
friends I’d been separated from over the summer
and no longer had any classes with.”
The float also has been a way to celebrate being
a sophomore – a class that can be overshadowed
by the distinctive needs of first-year students and
the confidence and achievements of juniors and
seniors.
Sophomores may not know it, but they have a
special place all their own.
“I appreciate working with students in their
sophomore year because so many important
shifts happen after the rush and discovery of
their first year,” says Katy Gray Brown ’91,
associate professor of philosophy and peace
studies, who has led float groups. They “become
confident enough to do a fundamentally
important endeavor: allow themselves to
Opposite page and above, sophomores enjoy activities surrounding an Eel River float. Kylee
Rosenbaum ’11 (above center), the director of alumni relations, says she and her friends used to
float the river when they were students.
Manchester | 21