{"id":1348,"date":"2025-11-05T20:40:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2025-11-07T19:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:40:28","slug":"clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-proud-refresher-for-nbsp-clarkies-nbsp-everywhere-nbsp\"><em>A proud refresher for&nbsp;Clarkies&nbsp;everywhere.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Clark is a liberal arts university with research-university power: you get both breadth and depth.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our ethos: \u201cChallenge convention. Change our world.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>9:1 student-to-faculty ratio: professors actually knew your name.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clark offers a tuition-free 5th-year master\u2019s or MBA for eligible students.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rankings &amp; Distinctions<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ranked #37 Best Value School in the U.S. by U.S. News &amp; World Report.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One of only 45 colleges named \u201cColleges That Change Lives\u201d for transforming students\u2019 lives.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ranked #3 in the world for Game Design (Princeton Review).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ranked #7 MFA program in the world (Princeton Review).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ranked #5 Best School for Making an Impact (Princeton Review).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Home to one of the oldest and top Geography programs in the U.S. (100+ years strong).&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Historic Firsts &amp; Research Breakthroughs<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sigmund Freud gave his only U.S. lectures at Clark in 1909, a historic moment in American psychology.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clark is the birthplace of the American Psychological Association (APA).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Early Clark research helped lead to the development of the birth control pill.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clark\u2019s Robert Goddard, \u201cthe father of modern rocketry,\u201d launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, a milestone in modern rocketry. Clark will celebrate the centennial of this launch in March&nbsp;2026.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clark has its own mountain range in Antarctica, named by Paul Siple, Ph.D. \u201939, inventor of the wind chill factor.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Social Justice &amp; Community Impact<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Clark has Social Justice in its DNA. It has a long tradition of turning education into action through inclusion, community research, and Worcester-based activism.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Since 1997, Main South has been home to University Park Campus School, a highly successful partnership between the city\u2019s school district and Clark University that prepares low-income students for college and has earned both local and national recognition, including praise from President Barack Obama.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Milestones in Leadership &amp; Culture<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 1967, Alice Coonley Higgins became the first woman to chair the board of trustees at any private U.S. research university, and she did it at Clark.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Legendary concerts at Clark&nbsp;include&nbsp;Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Clash, and Talking Heads, among many others.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Athletics Highlight<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2024\u201325 Men\u2019s Basketball: NEWMAC Champions! Clark\u2019s 17th NCAA tournament appearance.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New Climate School<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This May, Lou&nbsp;Leonard,&nbsp;joined Clark as the first dean of Clark\u2019s new School&nbsp;of Climate, Environment, and Society. The&nbsp;School&nbsp;builds on Clark\u2019s long legacy of climate-related work in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities\u2014accelerating the discovery of human\u2011focused, community\u2011centered solutions.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alumni, Donors &amp; Legacy<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Notable alumni include Padma Lakshmi \u201992 (television host (Top Chef), model, author, businesswoman, and activist), Ron Shaich \u201976 (Panera Bread, Tatte, Life Alive), Mark Bittman \u201971, L.H.D. \u201917 (NYT food writer, author, and the editor-in-chief of The Bittman Project), and Jeffrey Lurie \u201973 (owner of the Philadelphia Eagles).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jacob Hiatt \u201946&nbsp;funded&nbsp;major Clark institutions; his family legacy continues today through the Kraft family of New England Patriots fame.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2025, Ron Shaich \u201976 made the largest gift in Clark\u2019s history: $20 million to support Clark\u2019s new strategic plan.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clark&nbsp;alumna&nbsp;Margaret Wickens Pearce (M.A. \u201995, Ph.D. \u201998) was named a MacArthur \u201cGenius Grant\u201d Fellow in 2025.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A proud refresher for&nbsp;Clarkies&nbsp;everywhere.&nbsp; Rankings &amp; Distinctions&nbsp; Historic Firsts &amp; Research Breakthroughs&nbsp; Social Justice &amp; Community Impact&nbsp; Milestones in Leadership &amp; Culture&nbsp; Athletics Highlight&nbsp; New Climate School&nbsp; Alumni, Donors &amp; Legacy&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0 | Alumni | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A proud refresher for&nbsp;Clarkies&nbsp;everywhere.&nbsp; Rankings &amp; Distinctions&nbsp; Historic Firsts &amp; Research Breakthroughs&nbsp; Social Justice &amp; Community Impact&nbsp; Milestones in Leadership &amp; Culture&nbsp; Athletics Highlight&nbsp; New Climate School&nbsp; Alumni, Donors &amp; Legacy&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alumni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jfaulkner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/\"},\"headline\":\"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":565,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/\",\"name\":\"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0 | Alumni | Clark University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/017807c5a6ced391828567f800f2031b\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/05\\\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/posts\\\/1348#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Alumni\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/\",\"name\":\"Alumni\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/alumni\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0 | Alumni | Clark University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0","og_description":"A proud refresher for&nbsp;Clarkies&nbsp;everywhere.&nbsp; Rankings &amp; Distinctions&nbsp; Historic Firsts &amp; Research Breakthroughs&nbsp; Social Justice &amp; Community Impact&nbsp; Milestones in Leadership &amp; Culture&nbsp; Athletics Highlight&nbsp; New Climate School&nbsp; Alumni, Donors &amp; Legacy&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/","og_site_name":"Alumni","article_published_time":"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jfaulkner","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/"},"headline":"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/"},"wordCount":565,"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/","name":"Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table\u00a0\ud83e\udd83\u00a0 | Alumni | Clark University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-11-05T20:40:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/#\/schema\/person\/017807c5a6ced391828567f800f2031b"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/2025\/11\/05\/clark-fun-facts-to-serve-at-the-thanksgiving-table\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":0,"name":"ClarkU","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Alumni","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/","name":"Alumni","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}