Volunteer Shout Out //
Paul Goodrich '88 P'23 '25 & Valerie Goodrich P'23 '25
In honor of our upcoming Family Weekend, we'd like to give a shout out to Kenyon parent volunteers Paul Goodrich '88 P'23 '25 and Valerie Goodrich P'23 '25.
"We've been volunteering for a long time, and to be honest, I lost touch with Kenyon over the years," said Paul. "I still have some of the best friends from my time at Kenyon. As we began the college search process a couple of years ago for our oldest, Billy, Kenyon came back to mind. I did not want to force Kenyon on Billy, and it was the last school he visited. To our surprise, Billy decided to apply early and joined the class of '23. His brother Jimmy certainly had a strong advocate in his older brother, and he followed suit and joined the class of '25 earlier this year. Valerie and I knew we wanted to be involved in our kids' experience and quickly realized we could help from Chicago."
Valerie and Paul chose to be parent volunteers because they both feel Kenyon is a place that needs and is worth their effort — and they can feel the impact they are making! They choose to support Kenyon financially because it is important to them that they don't feel like they are donating to a black hole. They appreciate Kenyon's transparency about their needs and uses of financial asks.
As volunteers, Valerie and Paul hosted a welcome reception this past summer for new students and felt particularly lucky to have Bill Lowry '56 join them to see the next class engage with the College. Next up as volunteers for the College, they hope to help Kenyon continue to expand its name recognition, especially in areas of the country that traditionally don’t send their kids to small liberal arts colleges.
Paul was a history major at Kenyon and is currently the chief operation officer for the city of Chicago. Valerie attended University of Michigan as well as Rush Medical College and is currently a physician at Lovell Federal Health Care in Chicago.
Thank you, Valerie and Paul, for all you do to support Kenyon. We couldn't do this work without you and our entire group of dedicated volunteers!
