A Message from President Alexandra Somers '97

I am so glad you have chosen to visit our website today! I hope you find all the information you are looking for on this site. We continually work to improve and update our website so that it works for you. Please send any comments, questions, or feedback to me by using the e-mail address info@columbia-alumni.org.

Here's a little bit about myself (taken from the first Newsletter of the revitalized CHSAA)...

Alexandra Somers, class of 1997, has had the unique opportunity over the past year to serve not only the current alumni of Columbia High School, but also to teach and mentor future alumni in her role as a tenured faculty member of the Mathematics Department at CHS. A graduate of Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, she earned a B.A. in Mathematics. During college she was involved in everything from student government to playing tympani in the college orchestra. She served as an officer on various organizations, a trend she has continued upon rejoining the South Orange and Maplewood communities. Since her return to South Orange and CHS, Alex has been a board member of the Cougar Boosters, the CHSAA, the South Orange Maplewood Adult School Eva Samo Lecture Committee, the New Jersey Wellesley Club, and the Two Towns in Harmony project team. At the high school, she has been a staff member of the Marching Band and served as the Assistant Director in 2004 of the same band in which she played while she was in high school. Though giving up her commitment to the marching band at the end of the 2004 season, she was the senior class advisor and ran the prom in June of 2005 and will be doing the same this spring in 2007.

Although volunteering, teaching, and advising take up a great deal of time in Alex’s life, she knows how to spend her vacation time wisely. Over the past few years she has maintained her true passion: travel. Copenhagen, London, France, and New Orleans for Mardi Gras have been among vacation destinations.  Summer of 2005 was spent in Belgium and Finland.  Summer 2006 saw her down under with the koalas and wallabes in Australia and first class wine in New Zealand.

Keeping close to her communities remains a strong theme in Alex’s daily life. She is honored to have been chosen to be president of an organization dedicated to reuniting classmates and giving back to CHS!

Alex with the marching band seniors of the

2004-2005 Marching Band season

Alex and a Belgian Waffle in Bruges, Belgium

August '05

Resting after climbing "the little sahara" on Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of Australia, July, 2006 (right)

Sunset in the Grampian's National Park, Victoria, Australia (below)