By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
This coming weekend, Springfield College is set to host its annual homecoming weekend, filling the campus with a plethora of familiar faces.
Historically, homecoming weekend has been a yearly tradition at most colleges and universities, allowing alumni to catch up with former friends, classmates and more. This year it’s taking place on Oct. 19.
Saturday will feature a long list of activities including coffee with the distinguished professors of humanics at 9 a.m., an alumni of color meet and greet from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and alumni softball and lacrosse games throughout the day.
There are also numerous sporting events going on around campus. This includes both the football team taking on MIT and women’s volleyball playing Mount Holyoke at noon, and men’s soccer taking on WPI at 3 p.m. There’s also going to be tents outside of Stagg Field from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. where people can tailgate and partake in some food and drinks.
To cap off the evening, the school is hosting an alumni awards ceremony, where a number of people are going to be receiving awards for various things they’ve done.
Kurt Aschermann, who is receiving the Tarbell Medallion award for 2023, was not able to accept it last year as he wasn’t able to attend. For him, it feels good to be back on Alden Street.
“It’s just nice to be back on campus,” Aschermann said. “I’ve always loved the place. It was attractive to me the first time I came for my interview and I just liked the place.”
The Tarbell Medallion award is given to people who have been out of school for at least 20 years and who have provided volunteer work to the college throughout their post-grad years. Recipients must demonstrate strong humanics philosophies as well.
Aschermann was a standout baseball player during his time at Springfield from 1968-71, and was drafted into the MLB by the Chicago Cubs in the 3rd round of the 1970 MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase from Springfield College after being selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 11th round of the 1967 MLB June Amateur Draft out of high school. He was also involved in the anti-war movement his junior and senior year.
“It’s nice to be recognized,” Aschermann said. “It’s nice to be seen as someone who’s made a difference and been supportive of the college over these many, many years.”
Other awards being handed out are the Young Alumna Award (Lindsay Hutchinson ‘13), the Distinguished Alumnus (Robert Gialloreto G’93) and Alumna award (Shawn Ladda G’85), Hall of Alumni of Color Achievers Inductee (Dan Smith ‘60) and the Tarbell Medallion award for 2024 (Pam Green Pearson ‘68 G‘99).
In his time at Springfield, the community around Aschermann and the people he met shaped him and impacted his life for the better. Through his four years, he learned a lot of really valuable lessons. One of the most important life lessons he learned is one that many others believe to be true: you can do anything you set your mind to.
“Someone asked me, ‘What would you tell college students today?’ I believe this from the bottom of my heart, you probably can do anything you really want to do,” Aschermann said. “I’ve never been qualified for any job I’ve ever had. I’m running a newspaper now. How much do I know about running a newspaper? What I’m saying is, the fake it ‘till you make it actually can work. If you’ve got a good grounding, you can pretty much do anything you want.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College