Ninth Annual Meeting

Featuring Jackie Esposito

The Charlotte Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association held its Ninth Annual Dinner on Friday, June 7th, 2002. The event was held at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte's Center City. As guest arrived, they were invited to tour the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, free of charge. The dinner was served in the top floor banquet room that opened onto a rooftop terrace overlooking the city's skyline. The venue provided a great opportunity for people to mingle among other alumni as well as view the city as one has never viewed it before. The dinner was catered by Mama Ricotta's Italian Restaurant.

This year's guest speaker from University Park was the one and only Ms. Jackie Esposito. Jackie is currently serving as Penn State University's University Archivist. Jackie is well known among Penn State's alumni for her publication of The Nittany Lion: An Illustrated Tale. Her presentation for the night was on the history of the school mascot. Yes, we all know it's the Nittany Lion today, however did you know that it used to be a horse that lived on campus and even a bulldog at one point in time? Who would have guessed that? Jackie also mentioned that Penn State's school colors at one time were Pink in Black. Thank goodness, those colors are not in use today. Everyone there could sense how much knowledge Jackie possesses with respect to the school’s history and its preservation. We thank her for attending our event.

We had a great turnout this year. It is always nice to see such a good response for these events. This is a great time for people to come out and socialize among people that you have something in common with…Penn State Pride. If you have not made it out to any of our events you should attempt to do so soon. It will be exactly what the doctor ordered!

- Scott Grant ‘96