September 2008
An Update from Bill Krein ’62, Alumni Association President
Dear Fellow Alumni,
There is a lot of activity at WPI and I feel that from time-to-time I should take the opportunity to inform you personally of news and developments.
The start of a new academic year seems a fitting time to update you on the activities of the WPI Alumni Association. We are energized for a year full of stimulating events and opportunities to reconnect with our WPI friends and classmates. Of course, we’re always ready to roll up our sleeves for our alma mater, too.
You have many reasons to be proud of WPI today. At the end of August, the university welcomed its largest, most diverse, and among its most academically gifted classes in its history. You may have had a chance to meet some of these students at one of the eight new-student barbecues held in August. Faculty members are earning national grants to support research that could change the lives of countless people, and students are earning awards for the same kind of transformative research. I encourage you to regularly read the headlines on the university’s Web site at http://www.wpi.edu/News/index.html to learn about the good work being done at WPI. I hope you also enjoy receiving your monthly copy of The Bridge, which includes campus news, information from the Alumni Association, Career Development, Corporate and Professional Education, and Athletics.
The Web site and The Bridge are only two ways for you to stay connected to WPI. Alumni engagement is a key priority for the Alumni Association and the university, and I hope you have noticed the increased number of events, programs, and communications undertaken as we enhance our outreach to alumni throughout the country and around the world. In an effort to create stronger connections among alumni, we have launched 13 alumni clubs in cities and regions throughout the country, including:Boston; Worcester; Providence, R.I.; Hartford, Conn./Springfield, Mass.; Southern New Hampshire; Metropolitan New York; Washington, D.C.; Northern California; Chicago; Denver; Cape Cod, Mass.; Philadelphia; and Portland, Ore. This year we will be adding Southern California.
We’ve been able to further increase our alumni events in other parts of the country and engage more faculty in these events through our WPI in Your Neighborhood Program. When faculty are traveling to conferences or on other academic business, this terrific program helps them pull together a gathering of alumni. Last year, WPI faculty appeared in neighborhoods in San Diego, Menlo Park, Calif., Chicago, Seattle, New York City, Denver, and San Francisco.
We recognize that to engage more alumni in the life of WPI, we must provide you with more than just social activities. With that in mind, the Alumni Association and the university have invested in a position in the Career Development Center aimed at assisting alumni with their career development needs. Connie Horwitz, assistant director at the Career Development Center, works on alumni services and programming, including the Alumni Career Webinars that you read about in The Bridge and may have attended. We know that providing services like this that promote and support your career advancement and professional development are crucial to building a vibrant Alumni Association. You can access Connie and the CDC via the WPI web site and selecting the alumni then career services tabs.
To continue our push to bring you even more events and programming, the Alumni Relations office recently has added new staff members. Sara Fish, associate director, and Anastasia Schelkin, assistant director, have joined Jodi Briggs, associate director, and Maureen Maynard, administrative assistant. This talented group is working to advance our initiatives and build on the progress we’ve made in reconnecting with more of you and supporting WPI. The search continues to recruit just the right person as Executive Director of the Alumni Office. In the interim, Dexter Bailey, Vice President for Advancement is carrying water on both shoulders as he covers the Alumni Office and continues to lead the Capital Campaign.
The Alumni Relations staff has a wonderful Homecoming planned on Oct. 3-4, and I hope you will come back to campus to enjoy the events, see the many changes, and reconnect with your friends. The full homecoming schedule is available online at http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/Alumni/Events/Homecoming/.
We look forward to keeping you engaged and I hope that you will help us. By answering surveys from your local chapter or just by sending us an e-mail at alumnitips@wpi.edu and sharing your thoughts and news with us, we can stay in touch and respond to your interests. We also need your financial support. Contributions to the Annual Fund are crucial to keeping WPI at the forefront of science and technology education.
The WPI alumni community is 30,000 strong and growing. We are the best ambassadors for the strengths of a WPI education, and we can serve as an example to all other colleges and universities of just how much a fully engaged alumni community can accomplish for its alma mater. I hope you will join us in this important endeavor to ensure the future of WPI.
With best regards,
Bill
W. A. Krein ‘62
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: October 21, 2008 16:54:06