| An Experience That Starts Here and Lasts a Lifetime
Dear Fellow Alumni:
Thank you for visiting the Alumni Association page. The Alumni Association is geared up, ready to go and fully staffed. We welcome new ideas and volunteers to join us. The goals of your Association are simple: we want to connect our alumni brothers and sisters to all aspects of Lafayette life (campus, athletics, academics, strategic planning) and to make Lafayette and all it has to offer more relevant to you. We are exploring the best ways for our 28,000 alumni who live in all 50 states and 91 foreign countries to “connect” with the Lafayette community and to do so in the ways which best suit the needs and wants of this diverse and dispersed alumni body making use of the latest technology applications.
Chapters
We are continuing to invest in and strengthen our alumni chapters program. Currently, we have 35 regional chapters with plans to establish 14 more within the next couple of years. Last year we established our first international chapter, in London. We hope you will attend chapter events in your area; bring a friend or classmate and watch us grow. We are also looking for ways to offer enriching content at chapter events to complement and strengthen the social and re-uniting fabric these events provide.
Strategic Plan
Under the leadership of President Dan Weiss (now in the fourth year of his term), and with the unanimous endorsement of the Board of Trustees, Lafayette is rolling out a strategic plan to advance the objectives of the College to increase the size and further strengthen the quality of our excellent faculty, lower the faculty-student ratio, respond to the changing demographics of the population from which we draw our exceptional students and be more attractive to the future college applicant pool. At the same time, President Weiss’ strategic plan includes plans for a cutting edge new life sciences program, a strong curriculum and a cleaner and greener campus. The plan also addresses the increasingly difficult burden of financing a Lafayette quality education.
Stay Connected
Lafayette is well positioned to succeed and be competitive in an ever-changing environment. If you are connected and involved, we hope you will invite, entice and cajole your friends who are not connected to reconnect. If you’ve not been connected to Lafayette lately, reading this letter is a step in the right direction. Keep reading; tell us what you’re thinking and come to campus and see the College’s growing success. If you’re not geographically close to Easton, visit the website and attend chapter events…and bring a couple of classmates and friends. This will yield real results.
I hope you also take advantage of the opportunities for further connections through the free, secure Alumni Online Community which offers a continually updated alumni directory, resume posting, individual Class Notes and photos, permanent email forwarding, and online registration for alumni events. If you haven’t done so already, visit the alumni web site and register today – I hope to read an update about you soon!
Career Services
Finally, we need your support to help our current students gain real life workplace environment experiences. These experiences help students focus their career goals and help them make important decisions. More than ever before, employers expect graduates to have relevant work experience and clear career goals. We have all read the articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal about the importance of internships, and how they have now become expected and required by employers. The experiences help students build confidence, gain an inside perspective of a particular field or industry, apply their learning in a real-world setting and develop additional skills. Please consider hosting a January externship and/or a summer internship for a Lafayette student by contacting the Career Services Office at (610) 330-5115.
Please feel free to contact me or our able Alumni Office Director, Ms. Sherri Jones at joness@lafayette.edu with your thoughts and ideas.
On Lafayette,
Paul McCurdy ‘82
President, Lafayette College Alumni Association
paulmccurdy@alumni.lafayette.edu
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