Editor's note: This is the third in a weeklong series of stories forecasting the future and providing tips for soon-to-be college graduates.
Students, make no mistake: When you graduate, Ohio University will launch a grand campaign for your checkbook. But for the most part, that effort is not the province of the OU Alumni Association. Instead, the association's array of chapters and societies around the world can work to students' advantage, offering a network of career connections, financial services and the chance to keep in touch with fellow alumni.
Our mission is to connect
inform and serve alumni and friends of the institution said Cristie Gryszka, the association's director of outreach and engagement.
Gryszka and a dozen others constitute a staff that coordinates communications between the university and the association's 32 chapters and 22 societies. Chapters are organized geographically, while societies are grouped by major or activity. Besides keeping alumni and students in touch, the association offers insurance, student loan consolidation, a credit card and other financial services.
The association also maintains a Web site called The College Gate at www.ohio.edu/alumni, which is like Facebook for alumni, Gryszka said. The College Gate contains a list of the association's chapters and societies.
The largest alumni chapters are Central Ohio, with more than 22,000 alumni and Greater Cleveland with about 13,000. Outside Ohio, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., and Washington D.C. are some of the most populous and active alumni areas, Gryszka said.
The Nation's Capital chapter, stretching from Baltimore, Md., to Manassas, Va., is the most active out-of-state chapter, Gryszka said. The chapter's president, Robert Walter, supervises students in communication internships and used to run political campaigns. Walter got a job by networking with alumni and has been involved in the hiring of three Ohio graduates, he said.
Being a Bobcat and being from Ohio University is not just a four-year thing it's a lifelong pursuit
Walter said.
The Nation's Capital chapter holds monthly happy hours that rotate between Maryland, Virginia and D.C. The group also fields recreational teams in softball, volleyball and flag football and meets to watch OU sporting events on TV.
Beyond recreation, the chapter sponsors a scholarship to send a high school senior from the D.C. area to OU each year and hosts preparatory meetings for area students before they head to Athens.
We encourage those students to stay involved in the alumni chapter even before they graduate
Walter said.
Headed by Aaron Comstock of Lancaster, the Singing Men of Ohio society was created last summer, though the alumni met for several years without making it official, Comstock said.
The society of former members of the men's choral group reunites every year for a concert with the current SMO lineup, known to the alumni as SMO Year's Eve.
Now that we're organized
we've started doing a lot more
Comstock said.
SMO alumni of all ages get together for dinner in Columbus or Cleveland and organize housing and receptions for SMO during its tours. Like the Nation's Capital chapter, the SMO society raises money for a scholarship.
Undergraduates can get involved in OU's alumni associations now through two organizations, Student Alumni Board and Senior Class Council.
SAB exists to connect alumni back to campus through student programming and inform students about the alumni association, said senior Kathryn Gillespie, whose term as SAB president ended in March.
SAB's biggest event is Take a Slice of Ohio University With You
which coincides annually with the Alumni Leaders' Conference. The heads of each alumni chapter and society return to Athens and gather outside Konneker Alumni Center to meet with students over pizza and talk about the different ways to get involved after graduation. The event is scheduled for May 18 this year.
The group includes 65 students, but we have a lot of growing to do
Gillespie said. She said an increased membership would help to promote SAB's events and enable the group to play a large part in a new Alumni Mentors program.
Selected as juniors, Senior Class Council is a group of 25 seniors representing each academic college. They work on programming that aims to engage seniors and make them feel connected to their graduating class, President Trischa Snyder said.
The whole organizational purpose is to build a strong relationship between students in that class; basically
build strong future alumni that will eventually give back to the university
Snyder said.
That giving back begins with the Senior Class Signature, a stockpile of money that will fund the senior gift. This year the gift is a donation to OU's Center for Community Service's SCORE grant program, which supports the development of community service projects by students.
The main drive for Senior Signature is to encourage students to give back to the university for the first time
