I’ve often said that one of the best parts of my job is that it brings me close to so many alumni who share the love of Ohio State that I have.
Since I’ve been president and CEO of the Alumni Association I’ve met countless graduates who are impressive in so many ways. I’ve met people who excel in just about every field and in about every corner of the world. A great majority of Ohio State’s strength lies in its dedicated alumni, and that has only become clearer to me as I’ve spent more time working at the Association.
In addition to their tremendous professional achievements, our graduates consistently do things to support Ohio State and make it proud. They donate their time, talent, and treasure in the name of the university, and I have a tremendous amount of appreciation for those efforts. I feel like I am indebted to Ohio State for all the good it has helped create in my life, and it is obvious that many of our alumni feel the same way.
But appreciation is not a one-way street and that is one of the big reasons why Ohio State has engaged in our current Celebrating Alumni initiative. If you aren’t familiar with what we’ve been doing, then you are really missing out on wonderful stories about our graduates, their love of Ohio State, and how they’ve taken the wealth of opportunity available at the university and turned it into life success.
I do want to mention a few of the online features we’ve been producing as a part of this initiative. Our Alumni in Action feature is drawing attention to the great work our clubs and societies do in the name of Ohio State. We’ve spotlighted some outstanding groups and will continue to do so over the next year. If you’d like to see your group featured, please send in your questionnaire and we can publish it.
I am personally really thrilled about the feature "100 Buckeyes You Should Know." These profiles have done a solid job of giving you a quick look at some of our most accomplished graduates and the work they do to make our world a better place. And the alumni video features are short but impactful and give graduates a chance to talk about the special role that Ohio State has played in their lives.
And there is more on tap throughout the course of this year. On Sept. 17, we hope you will join us as we celebrate the anniversary of the first day of classes at Ohio State with Founders Day. We’ll provide more information on that as we get closer to September, but it is clear that is going to be a day brimming with Buckeye pride.
So far, I have been really impressed with the way the entire Ohio State community has rallied around the Celebrating Alumni initiative. Recognizing alumni is not something that is the sole responsibility of the Alumni Association and many other groups within Ohio State have stepped up to play a role and make sure that their alums are being recognized.
You can play a role, too. If you know of an alumnus who should be featured, feel free to send our staff an e-mail at community@ohiostatealumni.org. We’ve already heard some wonderful stories of alumni accomplishment that we didn’t know about, and we hope to hear more as this effort
continues.
Our alumni are the best. And again, let me say thank you for continuing to make Ohio State proud.
Archie
WHERE TO FIND CELEBRATING ALUMNI: