It's been a busy few weeks, getting ready for the fall term to begin, so I have been a bit lax in getting my regular Monday posts out. I'm "faking" it a bit today, in that I am linking to another story, rather than writing a full post, on an article about my mentoring of the football team that ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education this past week. Here is the story link.
This story hit three days before we held the first-ever McDaniel College Green Terror Football Alumni Networking Event. Our college's Office of Experience and Opportunity has been offering alumni networking events for departments for several years. One day, I thought, these programs are great - but what if we did this just for football players with all former football players coming back to talk about how football helped them, but also how the liberal arts education that they got here also helped them. I suggested the idea to the CEO. It was deemed a good idea. And last night, 140 or so current players met nearly 30 alumni of McDaniel College, who also played football.
And I think some magic happened.
Students who attended can better explain what happened than I could:
"Thank you for taking the time to put that idea together, you have no idea of the potential futures you could’ve shaped by bringing all these people together."
"I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to Gretchen McKay and the CEO Office for organizing the first ever McDaniel Football Alumni Networking social. We all appreciate the countless hours of hard work you put into our program!"
Here are some pictures from the event. I would do just about anything to help these students and to ensure their success. I expect a lot from each of them, but I hope they know I will give just as much back to them in return.
