Multicultural students make effort to reconnect with friends from past
In an effort to stay connected to multicultural alumni, USU Multicultural Student Services held a reunion for the first time as part of their USU Homecoming Week activities Saturday, inviting USU multicultural student alumni and current multicultural students.
The ultimate goal is to bring the multicultural students back and to help us stay in touch with them, said Johnny Lopez, leadership and activities coordinator for USU Multicultural Student Services.
Awareness of the reunion was done with the help of the Alumni Association; records there helped the Multicultural Student Services contact alumni and spread the word to them about the reunion, Lopez said. There were many past and current multicultural officers that attended as well as anyone else interested, he said.
The alumni and current students went to all of the Homecoming Week activities together, including the parade, the tailgate and the football game, Lopez said. There was a breakfast held before the parade where current students could speak with alumni about their success in life as a result of USU and gain valuable relationships for future networking in the professional world, he said.
The alumni and students had dinner at the USU Space Dynamics Lab where the current students performed different traditional dances from their culture for the alumni, Lopez said. Students spoke with the alumni about their experiences at USU and where the alumni are in the lives right now, he said. The goal was for the alumni to inspire current students to do well and gain confidence as well as establish important contacts for future opportunities, Lopez said.
This idea of a multicultural student reunion has been in the works for a couple years. Alumni have called and wondered about getting together for USU events, sparking an interest in the idea that eventually grew to this year’s decision to have a Homecoming Week reunion, said Jimmy Moore, ASUSU associate director.
USU multicultural students have had a great experience here, they just needed a reason to come back and this reunion is that reason, Moore said.
“This was a very good idea. Students were very excited to come back to Utah State,” Lopez said.
Multicultural Student Services wants to make this reunion similar to a class reunion; alumni will be asked how and when they would like future reunions to be and a reunion committee will be organized to plan them, Lopez said.
“This is a huge step where we are just trying to get our feet wet,” Moore said. “I hope this reunion is just the foundation of where multicultural student services can go with reuniting its students.”
USU multicultural student interaction was started by the trailblazers decades ago and it will hopefully lead to the building of a legacy in the future, Moore said.
–monica.swapp@aggiemail.usu.edu