Students past and present, faculty, staff, alumni and parents pack the Puma Dome. The excitement and joy that fills the room is so palpable that you can taste it on your tongue. The people filling this room come from all walks of life, and just one thing connects them all: UPrep and its legacy.
On Feb. 28, hundreds of UPrep alumni, faculty and staff both current and past, and students gathered in the Puma Dome to celebrate UPrep’s 50th birthday. The day was filled with speeches commemorating founders, and reflecting on the past 50 years of UPrep.
Those attending the celebration reminded Pat Landy, one of four UPrep founders present on Feb. 28, of the UPrep community’s love and respect for the founders upon arriving at campus.
“The reception is very warm and cordial, and it always impresses me how many other people have wanted to contribute to University Prep,” Landy said, “and it’s because of their donations that we’re here 50 years later.”
Another founder who was present, Terry Froggatt, would’ve never expected to be attending UPrep’s 50th anniversary if you had told her back in 1976.
“I think that 50 years ago today, we were just trying to put one foot in front of the other and trying to build something, a vision that we had and to make a go of it the first years,” Froggatt said. “We didn’t know at that time whether or not we would even make it.”
John Davidson (’99) reflected on the time that has passed and the differences between the UPrep he knew and the one that exists today.
“It doesn’t feel different. That’s what’s so great, is that it feels so similar in the way that the teachers are fantastic and care and know all the students very well and as individuals,” Davidson said. “Yeah, I think that’s what was so great when I was here. And it still feels so great, yeah. So that doesn’t feel like it’s changed at all.”
The celebration featured speeches from alumni and representatives of the founders’ families. Throughout the event, UPrep’s sense of community was strong, and its excitement for the future was evident.
