Title: SFS Celebrates 100 Years with Birthday Bash

On Friday, September 20, 2019, the Georgetown community celebrated the 100th birthday of the School of Foreign Service. Students crowded into the Healey Family Student Center for food, games, raffle prizes and centennial t-shirts. Dean Joel Hellman delivered brief remarks about the centennial, and student groups gave performances. The party featured SFS trivia about the history of the school since 1919, and a time capsule collected objects from the past 100 years with an eye to the next century of international affairs education.

The event began with a lunch for attendees and plenty of balloons and party hats to go around. Students began to enter their names into a raffle for Centennial Gala tickets and more.

Dean Hellman spoke about the history and present state of the SFS before kicking off the next raffle as well as the giveaway of popular pink SFS100 t-shirts. Students gathered amid music and conversation, a buzzing atmosphere and fast-vanishing food.

Halfway through the afternoon, Executive Director of the Centennial Will Layman and Dean Hellman surprised students with a pop quiz. The SFS trivia grew increasingly difficult, culminating in what Layman called “the backbreaker question”: What was Fr. Edmund A. Walsh’s middle name?* The randomly selected respondent from among those who answered all questions correctly won a brand-new iPad. An unveiling of the SFS birthday cake followed, and Dean Hellman cut it with a member of the SFS Academic Council.

The afternoon continued with two more raffles and lucky winners, student performances in the third hour and a station to build your very own stuffed bulldog, complete with its own centennial shirt. The birthday bash wrapped up, looking forward to the next century of SFS.

*It’s Aloysius.