Last night I attended the Leeds School's December Recognition Ceremony in the beautiful Macky Auditorium on CU-Boulder's campus. I always find myself enjoying graduation ceremonies more than I expect to. Even though I'm not graduating, it's still a great feeling to be in a room filled with optimistic young adults, and overly-proud parents (a few with airhorns - seriously), and to hear inspirational speeches from those who taught these individuals, and others that have been successful in their lives. It's the ultimate 'feel-good' event.
However, as an alumni relations and communications staff member, I can't help but hope that these graduates' whole experience at Leeds was a 'feel-good' event. It's the students that loved their time at Leeds that will be more likely to keep in touch after graduation and let us know that they moved out-of-state or switched jobs. It's the students that participated in clubs and received scholarships that will care about the student experience of future Leeds students. And it's the individuals that got to know their professors or received assistance from our undergraduate advising or career offices that are most likely to come back and speak in classrooms or help future Leeds graduates find jobs.
There are some in the audience last night that may never return to campus nor be heard from again. However, on the other end of the spectrum are those that will remember Leeds and the education and the experience they had here. We'll see them in the future celebrating Homecoming, reviewing undergraduate resumes, serving as mentors and making donations to the school.
And of course there is everybody in between.
The good news is, nowadays, with social media and instantaneous communication, we have a much better opportunity to stay in touch with the "everybody in between". And perhaps, just maybe, more of these in-betweens will appreciate the continued Leeds connection and find themselves being active and engaged alumni afterall. Well, that is our hope - and our job!
Leave a comment