A new organization was launched earlier this month to promote the long term success of The Evergreen State College, its students and alumni. The Associated Alumni and Friends of Evergreen is part of The Evergreen State College Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to building an outstanding future for Evergreen.
Guests enjoy the Art of Living, an annual dinner & auction hosted by the Foundation to support Evergreen
Evergreen has graduated almost 40,000 students since it opened in 1971, but the new Association is not limited to alumni, and members will be able to lend their voices to pressing issues, advocate on behalf of the college, mentor students and recent graduates, network with other members and attend special events. Members make a small donation to join, but they can also support Evergreen financially at higher levels.
Alumni talk to students at All Campus Mentoring Day
The Association is open to anyone who cares about Evergreen, says Glen Kriekenbeck, a 1989 Evergreen graduate and a passionate supporter of the new Association. As Committee Chair on Alumni and Friends for the Foundation’s Board of Governors, Kriekenbeck acknowledged that “advocacy is the first and key part of the association” but that “networking, mentoring, recruitment and philanthropy are all part of the larger vision.” The previous Evergreen Alumni Association operated as part of the college rather than part of the nonprofit Foundation.
Alumni and faculty talk to students at Return to Evergreen
In his meetings with alumni in Washington and across the country, Kriekenbeck said he has been “amazed” at the value Evergreen’s core ideas have brought to its graduates’ professional lives. “A wine maker and a coffee buyer both emphasized how important it is to understand the effect of local land use policy on the resulting crop and end product,” he said. Another alum, a software developer, mentioned his graphic design training at Evergreen helped him visualize structures in code and present to end users of the software. He hopes that the new Association will encourage such dialogue and provide support to students and more recent graduates.
Foundation Governor Glen Kriekenbeck meets and greets at Return to Evergreen
But Kriekenbeck noted that “Evergreen is not just about learning to support your vocation; it’s about learning to be in relationship with each other and society.” To that end, he hopes the new group will be a connector “between our friends and graduates, the college and the wider community.”
President Purce joins alumni and friends at Return to Evergreen
The Association will kick off its efforts on January 28th at a special reception in Olympia hosted by The Evergreen State College Foundation. Special guests Julie Garver, Director of Governmental Relations for the College, and Glen Kriekenbeck, will each give remarks and answer questions about Evergreen’s legislative agenda and opportunities to get involved with the Association.
Learn more about the Associated Alumni and Friends of Evergreen.
I received an email about this new Association today. It said “join,” but had no details about what the Association is beyond “an empowered and activated network.” Also, the first link in the email is to a page about the policy for auditing classes, which in this context seems unrelated – or are members given some discount on that?
When I was at Evergreen there were many faculty who taught writing well. Please, when you’re sending out an initial notice of a new Association, recruit someone who can write to do it. The description on this page says a bit more. It could have served as the email intro. But it still says nearly nothing. Is the mission truly this vaguely defined? Is it intended to be?
Thanks for the reply Whit,
Please find additional information on the association at the following link: http://www.evergreen.edu/alumni/association.htm
The purpose of the Association is to empower alumni to connect with each other and the college in a way that is different than in the past. I think you can see what this means practically on the Association homepage. Also of course because we are Evergreen our approach has to be a bit unique, you will not find the Association as a typical university alumni association but as an outcomes and action oriented group. It’s also iterative and growing. I hope you will consider joining and continue to engage in the discussion.
Jonathan,
Alumni Programs
The Evergreen State College
Wow, 40,000 graduates, and I remember the day we convened the planning faculty and dreamed of our first students, let alone our first graduates.
When is All Campus Mentoring Day?
Mallory, here’s the link to the information available. There will be one in March and one in May.
http://www.evergreen.edu/events/mentoringdays/home.htm