USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim and Vice President for Student Life Monique S. Allard (right) join Trojan Family Weekend visitors in posing for a photo. (USC Photo/Brian van der Brug)
Parents, families get an official USC welcome during Trojan Family Weekend
About 4,200 people visit the USC campuses over the weekend as families get a firsthand Trojan experience.
As the 1,200-seat Bovard Auditorium teemed with USC parents and students clad in cardinal and gold on Friday morning, USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim made sure the packed house knew that joining the Trojan Family means becoming part of something unique and enduring.
“I haven’t actually found another university that refers to all of their alums, all of their students, faculty and staff, as members of a family,” Kim said. “When I meet with alumni groups, I hear the most amazing stories about how people have had their lives changed for the better because of another Trojan offering them a job or giving them advice — and they all want to pay it forward … because the Trojan Family has meant so much to them.
“And guess who’s going to be the beneficiary of all of that? Our students,” he added.
Kim’s address to students’ families was part of USC’s Trojan Family Weekend, a four-day event with more than 20 unique programs, including concerts, lectures, speeches and pre-football socializing ahead of the Trojans’ primetime matchup with the Northwestern Wildcats at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Friday night. About 4,200 guests converged on the University Park Campus for Trojan Family Weekend, some donning commemorative scarves for the event, most in some sort of USC swag, and nearly all wearing grins as they walked along Trousdale Parkway.
During his Bovard Auditorium conversation with Megan Jordan, USC’s vice president of executive communications and strategic initiatives, Kim shared some of his presidential priorities, his excitement for the university’s future and what it means to be part of the Trojan Family.
One recurring theme of the conversation was his Open Dialogue Project, which represents the university’s commitment to freedom of expression and open debate. In one of several questions from the audience, Trojan parent and alumnus Perry Vidalakis asked Kim about the balance of maintaining campus safety while also providing a lively environment for students to learn, work and socialize.
Kim responded that it’s critical to continue to foster an environment where a variety of opinions can be shared, emphasizing that one of the fundamental purposes of higher education is to “actually have conversation[,] provoke [new thinking] and expose [everyone] to different viewpoints.”
After Kim’s opening discussion, which was punctuated with cheers and applause from the audience several times, Vidalakis said he was pleased with Kim’s response to his question and others.
“I was really impressed by what he said in general. He seemed very frank,” said Vidalakis, a Pasadena resident and 1988 graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “He didn’t give generic answers.”
Vidalakis visited his son, Niko, a sophomore in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Apart from the football game on Friday night — which the Trojans won 38-17 — Perry Vidalakis said he was interested in attending some of the various presentations.
“I used that [Trojan Family Weekend 2025] app to make my schedule, so that made it really easy. It’s really nice that they had that,” he said.
Story continues below photo gallery
Trojan Family Weekend in pictures
Though the bulk of the weekend’s events occurred on Thursday and Friday in the lead-up to the football game, Saturday and Sunday featured plenty of events for families — including a film festival and various fitness and athletic tournaments.
“Overall, it went incredibly well,” said Adam Rosen, USC associate vice president for cultural relations and university events. “We had an increase in our attendance from last year, and even with the Friday football game, which was new this year, our engagement was strong, and families were happy to come back to school and see their students.”
Regardless of whether someone had multiple degrees from USC or was stepping onto campus for the first time, the sea of cardinal and gold along Trousdale Parkway made it clear that everyone in attendance was part of the Trojan Family.
“When you look at the USC mission statement, which dates back to 1993, it actually talks about the Trojan Family being one of those special, distinctive things about USC,” Kim said. “So, it’s more than lip service — it’s something that is really defining of USC.”
