Winter 2010: from the EAA

Allison Dykes

Allison Dykes, Vice-President for Alumni Relations

Bryan Meltz

By Allison Dykes

Dear Friends,

Happy 2010!

A new year always brings new goals for the future and happy reflections on past accomplishments. For the Emory Alumni Association, 2009 was an excellent year. More alumni than ever are involved with Emory—just recently, more than 1,400 members of our community volunteered on Emory Cares International Service Day, a record.

We hosted vibrant Commencement and Homecoming activities and sponsored scores of alumni events across the country and around the world. Emory alumni also are among our biggest supporters for Campaign Emory, the University’s $1.6 billion fund-raising effort.

One of the best ways for alumni to contribute to Campaign Emory is through support of the new Emory Alumni Board (EAB) Leadership Scholarship. The EAB established the scholarship in 2007; it recognizes outstanding students whose actions, beliefs, and passions have improved our community in the arts and sciences, in academic or extracurricular pursuits, through mentorship, via social outreach, or through other avenues.

Our first two recipients, Sacha Munro 11C and Lori Northcraft 09A 10PH, received their awards in the fall, and I can’t say enough positive things about them.

Sacha is a junior in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and hails originally from New Zealand. It’s difficult to pinpoint one thing that makes her an ideal scholarship recipient given that she is involved in so many groups on campus. She is the special events chair of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) Executive Board and a planning committee member for the Sophomore Pinning Ceremony. Sacha is a member of the Student Alumni Association (SAA), a Lullwater ambassador, tour guide, Class Gift Advisory Board member, and Emory Ring Tradition Committee member, and much more.

When she graduates this summer, Lori will be among Emory’s first recipients of Emory’s new dual degree in physical therapy and public health. A native of Oregon, Lori spent two years prior to coming to Emory living in the Rio Grande valley of Texas teaching elementary school in both English and Spanish.

Her experience there led her to explore the intersection between the clinical sciences and public health, which brought her to Emory. As a graduate student, Lori has been a leader in Emory’s South Georgia Farmworker Health Project, where she and other students deliver pro bono medical care to migrant farm workers and their families.

She has spent the fall conducting fieldwork in Arizona and returned to Atlanta just before the holidays to finish her classwork.

To learn more about Sacha and Lori and listen to their stories in their own words, please visit Emory on iTunes U (itunes.emory.edu). You can find an interview with our EAB Leadership Scholarship recipients in the “Alumni Up Close” album, located in the “Community” folder.

All of us at the EAA are proud to support these remarkable student leaders, and I invite you to help support them as well. To make an online gift to the EAB Leadership Scholarship, please visit www.emory.edu/give and select direction “Emory Alumni Association” and select fund “Emory Alumni Board Leadership Scholarship.” You also may make a gift over the phone by calling 404.727.6200. I thank you in advance for your consideration.

In closing, I wanted to mention one piece of sad news. On November 1, Emory lost one of its longtime leaders in Dean of Alumni Jake Ward 33C 36G. “Dr. Ward,” as he was affectionately known, joined our community in fall 1929—his freshman year—and he remained an integral part of it ever since. Since 1985, he had served as Emory’s dean of alumni, and when the Miller-Ward Alumni House opened in 2000, it made perfect sense that the new building be named after the only two men to hold the dean of alumni title—Ward and his predecessor, H. Prentice Miller 27C 28G.

I encourage you to read the tribute to Dr. Ward. He was a truly remarkable man, and he will be missed.

Always remember that the Emory Alumni Association is your association and your easiest way to connect both to Emory and your fellow alumni. If you have any questions about the EAA or how to get involved, please let me know. My email address is adykes@emory.edu, and I’m happy to hear from you.

And whenever you are on campus, please make the Miller-Ward Alumni House one of your stops. Visitors are always welcome.