"Light of Learning" to Be Passed to 400 Women During Pitt's Traditional Lantern Night Ceremony Aug. 26

PITTSBURGH-University of Pittsburgh alumni "flame-bearers" will give the "light of learning" to approximately 400 incoming freshmen and first-year transfer women during the 87th annual Lantern Night Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in Heinz Memorial Chapel, Fifth and Bellefield avenues, Oakland.

The women will gather at 7 p.m. in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room to receive a lantern and prepare for the procession to the chapel.

At 7:20 p.m., the women will process with unlit lanterns to the 7:30 p.m. ceremony at the chapel. During the event, Pitt alumni flame-bearers, including several mothers and grandmothers of incoming students, will light the lanterns. Carrying the burning lanterns, the new students will process back to the Commons Room for a reception.

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg will give the University welcome, and 2007 Alumnae Council Distinguished Alumna Eva Tansky Blum (CAS '70, LAW '73) will deliver the Freshman Address.

Blum is senior vice president, director of community affairs and chair of the PNC Foundation, the PNC Financial Services Group. She also directs the company's philanthropic programs and serves as a member of the Honor Board of WQED Multimedia. In 2001, Blum was honored as a Carlow College Woman of Spirit; in 1999, she was honored as one of Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business; and in 1998, she received the YWCA's Tribute to Women Award. Blum remains involved in the University. She is a member of Pitt's Board of Trustees, vice chair of Pitt's School of Law Board of Visitors, a past president and life member of the Pitt Alumni Association, and currently serves as cochair of University's Building Our Future Together $2 billion fundraising campaign.

Other participants include Brian Generalovich (CAS '66, DEN '68), Pitt Alumni Association president, who will give the alumni welcome; Anne Fejka, Panhellenic Association president, who will deliver the student welcome; and Kristi Riccio (GSPH '02), who will represent the Alumnae Council as its president.

The ceremony is one of the University's oldest traditions. The Alumnae Council of the Pitt Alumni Association and Pitt's Office of Student Life cosponsor Lantern Night.

For more information, call 412-624-8229 or 1-800-258-7488.

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8/21/07/tmw