Classical Studies hosted alumni during Homecoming weekend to celebrate 10 years of the major at Elon
During Elon’s 2026 Homecoming & Reunion Weekend, the Classical Studies program welcomed back several alumni whose class years spanned 2015 to 2026. The occasion marked two significant anniversaries for the interdisciplinary program: 10 years since the first classical studies degree was awarded to an Elon student, and five years since the installment of classical studies as a standing catalog major.
Classical studies faculty members Kristina Meinking, Tedd Wimperis, and Brandon Baker hosted the festivities, which featured student-designed commemorative t-shirts, gift bags for attending alumni and a cake celebrating 10 years of the Classical Studies major. Current majors and minors, including members of the Eta Sigma Phi honor society, contributed to planning the event and welcoming the alumni back to campus.
Classical Studies was inaugurated as an interdisciplinary minor by Rosemary Haskell and the late Russ Gill in 2000, housed within the Department of World Languages and Cultures. Megan Sweeney ’16 was awarded the university’s first Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies through the independent major program; she was soon followed by several other students who sought to foreground the study of antiquity in their Elon education. A dedicated major and revised minor were successfully proposed and approved in 2020-21, and first appeared in the 2021-22 academic catalogue.
The visiting alumni have gone on to a wide range of career paths after Elon, including accounting, operations, software engineering, medicine, marine research, university advancement and graduate study in chemistry, communications, library science and public history. For all the diverse post-graduation journeys these alumni have taken, they will always have a home under the oaks.
“The Classical Studies program helped me decide what I want to do with the rest of my life, and will always be a part of me,” said Ash Crouse ’26