Reconnecting with Alumni

The staff in the Gulf Coast Area (College Station and Houston) are reconnecting with alumni. I hope to see a few things come out of this effort.

Alumni are encouraging to me and my students. We just had Rene and Jennifer Aguirre (’96 and ’98, respectively) down to our Large Group. Jennifer spoke on God’s heart for justice and Rene announced the LaFe ’10 conference happening in Dallas. They got to meet and speak truth to students. Friday morning at Sweet Eugene’s, I got to hear stories of the Aguirre’s time at A&M and share my joys and struggles in calling Aggies to follow Christ. They had encouragement and advice, and they understood.

Alumni can pray wholeheartedly for the campus, with more of a long-term vision than students can. We just had 4 alumni from the class of ’54 come to our weekly prayer meeting – how cool is that! Several times a year, we hold an alum prayer meeting at Dennis and Sunny O’Neal’s house in College Station. The folks who gather there ask insightful questions, and then we delve into praying.

Alumni can give. There’s just no way students alone could ever financially support me and the work we do together. Alum (usually – I know it’s not always true in this economy!) have jobs, so if God calls them to give, they can give significantly more than a student.

There are many more things alum can do for InterVarsity’s ministry at A&M – disciple a student, provide a home for a leadership retreat, teach at a conference, bake some cookies for an outreach. But, I think alum can benefit too. I’ve heard too many stories from dear friends about how easy it is to slip away from following God, getting caught in the busy-ness of life. I’ve experienced it myself. There’s life and vitality in being around others who are following Jesus wholeheartedly; if you can’t find it anywhere else, you will certainly find it among students who are trying to figure out how to follow Jesus, sometimes for the first time.

That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. I need your help to do this. If you are interested in helping me get in touch with alumni, let me know. This could look like a few things: looking through the alum list to see if I’m missing alum from your year, helping me contact alum, or holding an event in your city to gather alum to support InterVarsity at Texas A&M. Leave a comment or email me at Carolyn_Boatsman@ivstaff.org.