In the age of digital connections, it is easy to rely only on emails and newsletters to try to foster connection between a school and its alumni. These tools are great because they provide instantaneous communication to our entire alumni network at once. For some things, like event announcements and invitations, such as our recent announcement of the building of our new Center for Math and Science, it is the perfect method of communication. We have 1,700 alums and we want as many of them as possible to stay connected to our Cary Academy community. There are limits to virtual connections though. If you want to know how someone is doing, how well Cary Academy prepared them for college and beyond, or what part of the Cary Academy experience inspired them most, you have to do things a little differently. We have to connect face to face.
Face to face is easier said than done when you have an alumni base that literally spans the globe. Like any big task though, you have to start somewhere. In the last month we have done four regional get-togethers with lunches at NC State, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill, along with a dinner in Washington DC (with another dinner coming up in June in New York City).
Some of the meals turn into reunions for alums that live in the same area, but don’t have the opportunity to see each other often. Some turn into networking events, with contact information exchanged and coffees set up for future dates. Some just turn into conversations about life after Cary Academy. I don’t know what they will be until I get there as, even events in the same area are very different from year to year based on who shows up. What I do know is that being part of these face to face connections is one of the best parts of my job. As our alumni base grows, I hope to host more of these events in new locations, giving our alums more opportunities to connect.
Some of the stories that come out of these meetups are truly inspiring. At our Duke lunch, Madeline Thornton (’14), told us about her work at WISER, an international non-governmental organization that works toward the social empowerment of underprivileged women through education and health. At our NC State lunch, Lindsey Wrege (’17) shared her vision behind creating 321 Coffee, a student organization on NC State’s campus designed to provide opportunities to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and allow them to develop connections with students, faculty, and professionals. These are just a few examples of the many stories I have had the privilege of hearing while getting to learn more about the remarkable impact our alums have made in the world.
Cary Academy has provided our alums a world class education, a global perspective and the curiosity and passion to pursue amazing lives. The connections we make at Cary Academy often last a lifetime. Through these face to face events after graduation, we can create and improve connections between all of our alums, because no matter what year you graduate, once a Charger, always a Charger!