“My goal in life is to get the travel program expanded to where we can appeal to a wider constituency,” said Wellner, who graduated with the class of 1964. He explained that the program had previously only solicited alumni over 65, which represent approximately 20 percent of the school’s total graduates.

One of the new group’s first actions was posting on RPI’s website that a new alumni travel program is going to be available. The posting included a link to a form that a visitor could fill out to signal their interest in the new trips. Wellner said they received a real surprise when they discovered that over half of all those who responded via the form had graduated within the past ten years. “This tells me that there’s a huge demand for different trips for younger people,” he said.

The RAA has been examining various places around the country and the world for the new trips. Previously, trips had only been offered to Europe, but Wellner said that problems overseas and interest in domestic trips have led to an expanded reach of the program. Among the trips planned are a week at a kite-boarding—a new activity that combines parasailing and surfing—camp in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a five-day Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale, a trip to London-Paris or London-Paris-Amsterdam (details are not yet decided), one to Ireland, and an already sold-out trip to Russia.

Alumni attending the Ireland trip will be accompanied by School of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean John Harrington in what Wellner hopes will become a tradition. He believes that having administrators and other officials from RPI attend will draw others to the trips.