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Fourteen �þ��� alumni in the Class of 2010 will re-enter the classroom this fall as educators with Teach for America, a national nonprofit that recruits recent college graduates to help erase what it describes as educational inequity found in many urban and rural low-income communities.

Hundreds of students, and nearly as many professors and administrators, mingled Wednesday afternoon on the green outside Moseley Center in the annual Senior Class Picnic for Graduates, Faculty and Staff. The informal event gives seniors a moment to relax over pork barbecue and grilled chicken with the �þ��� educators who guided them through four years of study.

Student leaders collected more than $16,000 this year from seniors, their parents, grandparents and friends in support of the Senior Class Gift campaign, which will fund the Class of 2010 Sustainability Research Grants for students who desire to complete research on sustainability practices.

New alumni can now download a customized news release announcing their graduation from �þ��� as part of the Class of 2010.

Imploring students to serve the communities where they will live, the Rev. Richard McBride used his Commencement address on May 23, 2009, to encourage the largest graduating class in �þ��� history to find “the place where what you most need to do to fulfill your life intersects with what you believe the world most needs to have done.”

It just didn’t seem right that Ashlee Crewe had to forfeit her college graduation to join teammates in Georgia this weekend for the NCAA softball tournament. So in front of family and friends, Crewe received her diploma Wednesday evening from Elon President Leo M. Lambert in a ceremony honoring the only senior on the Southern Conference championship team.

Within hours of receiving his diploma on Saturday, Kyle Johnson will drive to Georgia to train for a service program that will take him to 11 different countries in as many months. His inspiration? A “bucket list” his father compiled – and mostly completed – before dying on New Year’s Day.