I hope this newsletter issue finds you all healthy and well. With about six months of being your Ford Scholar Alumni Association President under my belt, I can confidently say these were big shoes to fill.
I want to once again sincerely thank Andrea Smith for all the hard work she put into running and growing this organization, and for her willingness to share her historical knowledge and wisdom with me in my six months at the reins.
As FSAA President, it has been such a pleasure to have the opportunity to get to know various classes of Ford Scholars more deeply, and I look forward to that continuing. I strongly encourage each and every one of you to try and do the same wherever you are, so we can all continue to support each other as members of the Ford Family. If you aren’t sure how to do this, here are just a few ways:
- Use the directory on MyFordInfo.org to see if there are any Ford Scholar Alumni that live in your area and contact them.
- Join us on the FSAA Facebook (facebook.com/groups/fordalumni) and utilize it to post invitations for others to join you in things you might already be doing like volunteering, one-time community service projects, or just getting together at a park.
- Join the Ford Scholar LinkedIn professional network (http://bit.ly/fordalumni) to start engaging our Ford Family in professional and career-oriented activities and see if someone is in an industry that you would like to know more about.
- Get involved with the FSAA (run for a position, vote, come to general meetings), and check your e-mail as the FSAA puts on quarterly events (from community service opportunities to pumpkin patch outings).
I’m excited to announce that there is a summer gathering for Ford Scholar Alumni in the works that will hopefully become an annual event that you can mark on your calendar. Even more exciting than getting to gather as alumni is that we will also be partnering with the Foundation to join the current Scholars at their annual summer Leadership Conference (ah, the memories) to help them develop networking skills.
The gathering will be held one day during the weekend of the conference, which is Aug. 1-3, at Sunriver near Bend, Ore. More details to follow – be watching your e-mail. I hope that many of you will make the effort to join the fun at this FSAA “practice” networking event.
