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| This academic year’s Student Alumni Association officers are, left to right: Dianna Meyer, activities chair; Kristen Munday, vice president; Vernon Miranda, alumni networking coordinator; Welsly Brown, secretary/treasurer; Martecia Belk, recruitment chair; and Nate Crow, president. Not pictured: Megan Deines, public relations chair. |
The WSU Student Alumni Association (SAA, for those in the know) has a serious mission: building Shocker tradition, spirit and loyalty through various events and philanthropic projects. But along the way, SAA members have developed quite a reputation for fun.
Can we prove that? You betcha. On Aug. 29 SAA threw its first party of the season, its annual Welcome Back Bash at the Woodman Alumni Center. Alumni hosts included Dave Dahl ’71/74, Terri Moses ’80/90 and Brad Beets ’87, who, as designated chef of the evening, manned the grill.
Then, when planning got under way for saa’s next get-together, members began by asking that ever important question: What would fall be without football? They opted not to find out and challenged members of the alumni association’s Young Alumni Committee to a high-stakes, furiously fervid game of flag football. This SAA versus YAC battle was waged Sept. 27 on WSU’s Heskett Center field, with SAA’s team ultimately prevailing.
Pleased with SAA's great start to its 2002-03 round of activities, Bobby Gandu ’02, WSU Alumni Association director of chapters and societies, and adviser to saa, says such events are exactly what saa is all about: “We view membership in SAA as a way to make premier connections between students and alumni and between students, alums and community members.”
Yet, Gandu adds, SAA highlights one unique connection among all the others: the relationship between students and alma mater. As SAA’s creed puts it: “I believe that as a student I have a special relationship with my alma mater, a relationship that represents a lifetime commitment in the fulfillment of my dreams and aspirations.
As a student, I am the focus of her goals and objectives. As an alumnus, I will represent the result of her missions and the embodiment of her spirit in the world.
What she is, I am; what she becomes, I become. Because I am the emerging essence of my institution, I will strive to enhance this special relationship between students, alumni and others so that the heritage of my alma mater will always be a part of my life — for the present as I follow my dreams and after graduation as I make them come true.”
So what’s upcoming for SAA?
The tailgate party to end all tailgate parties! On Dec. 14, before the Shockers take to the court against K-State in basketball action at the Kansas Coliseum, SAA members invite everyone to come out and help them “Cook the Cat.” (Hey! Even President Don and First Lady Shirley Beggs will be there, waiting to give Willie the Wildcat a warm, warm Wichita welcome.) If that sounds like your type of doldrum-dissipating diversion, don’t hesitate to contact either Gandu at (316) 978-3836 or Nikki Epley at (316) 978-3834 for all the specifics.
