I had a dream…

By Annita Verstappen-Bens, PhD 1993
President, 2000-2004
Graduate School Alumni Association

The dust is settling in my home office. Time to clean up all the paperwork I have accumulated over the years. After 10 years in this house, it’s time for new carpet, and I am forced to eliminate what is not essential.

As the sun goes down, I have positioned myself comfortably on the floor with my alumni association files. Where did the time go? As I browse through my notes from 1999 and 2000, I reflect on the very early days when Dr. Yorio asked if I would be interested in becoming the founding president of a Graduate School Alumni Association.

I was overjoyed!  I dreamed of building a well-connected, caring and proud group of alumni, who would stay involved with our school and give back every opportunity they had, be it time or money.

I dreamed of having a gathering place on campus where all alumni and students could connect, be it physically or virtually… and I was there on campus Sept. 17, 2004, when we all came together to dedicate our beautiful new Alumni Plaza!

I uncover colorful flyers in my pile of papers. These were the announcements we sent out to tell everybody we existed. Others invited alumni to our first reunion (RAD 2001) and to mixers at national meetings such as FASEB and ARVO. 

More warm and fuzzy feelings emerge as I read our first newsletter again. Only one more newsletter was produced before our funds ran out. So, we had another dream: to produce one alumni newsletter covering all alumni groups… and what you are reading right now is the marvelous result of those efforts!

This, and more, has happened because of the relentless enthusiasm of Julie Crider, PhD 1994, and Leslie Napier, PhD 1997, real troopers who have served with me from the beginning. 

This, and more, has happened because of the leadership and help of the Office of Institutional Advancement, cheering us on and offering ideas we could never dream up ourselves. 

And our dean!  Dr. Yorio is always approachable for support and quite imaginative with slogans and themes for many of our events. We laughed a lot and joined hands to reach our goals.

Speaking of reaching our goals…

In October 2003, we achieved our first great milestone at the GSBS “Into the Looking Glass” 10th anniversary gala. We, the GSBS alumni, helped our school raise almost $100,000 in scholarship funds - can you believe that? 

However, the reality in 2006 is that your alumni association has only a few hundred dollars in its operations fund right now to pay the pizza guy when we want to feed the students, or gather a few of us together for a mini-reunion.

So… please respond positively when your wonderful new alumni association officers appeal to you to become an active, dues-paying member of our very special “club”!

Yes, I had many dreams five years ago, and I can see them all being fulfilled one by one. I could not be more proud and satisfied.

Well, it is dark now, and I have not shredded one single piece of paper.

Who cares… I loved the journey! And I want to look back on it whenever I feel the urge.