For Mrudula "Chickoo" Rao, a member of the Class of 2002 and Knox's current young alumni trustee, the decision to come to Knox came down to one thing -- her name.

Rao would regularly visit her cousin, Ashwin Kuman '01, while she was still in high school, and she was struck by how many people at Knox remembered her.

"I noticed a trend of people remembering my name. And not just the admission counselors; other students, cafeteria workers, and members of the staff all knew my name," she says. "It really made a difference to me."

And it wasn't simply that people at Knox remembered who she was. Knox also made the special effort to address Rao not by her given name, Mrudula, but by her preferred name, Chickoo.

"Knox was the only school I applied to that addressed me by my preferred name, which also made a huge difference," she adds.

This simple act of remembering her name exemplifies the sense of community Rao found at Knox. But it was more than the familiarity of the Knox community that she appreciated; Rao also valued Knox's diversity.

"At Knox, I experienced a whole new level of diversity, of people, and of thought," she says. "I remember meeting a student in First-Year Preceptorial who had never been in the same room with a person of color before. We had an open and honest conversation about the situation, and there was no room for any offensive behavior. That is Knox to me. It is open and honest and gave me the ability to experience new situations in a safe environment."

Her appreciation for a community also informs her professional career, as well as her role as a young alumni trustee. Rao currently works in human resources for Wells Fargo in San Francisco, and she credits the Knox community for helping her get her job.

"I met trustee Susan Blew '75, who worked for Wells Fargo. She took an interest in me, followed up with me, and encouraged me to apply," Rao says.

It is this experience she hopes to promote in her role as young alumni trustee, a position she filled in 2006 and will hold until 2010.

"I want to see a culture change at Knox. I want students to think about their careers much earlier than they do now, and I want alumni to think about Knox students when it comes to filling jobs at their companies," she says.

Reconnecting alumni with the Knox community is key to making her goal a reality. "Alumni have their own communities, and they are not always linked back to campus," she says. "We need to build those links with the Knox community."

Rao plans to work with the Center for Career and Pre-Professional Development and Alumni Relations on ways to reconnect Knox alumni with current Knox students. "I feel a huge responsibility to make this happen," she says.