By Emma Gott
Student Reporter
The Alumni Association and foundation has a greater impact on you as a student than you may realize, according to CEO “Skeeter” Bird.
The Northwestern Foundation & Alumni Association is committed to providing Northwestern Oklahoma State University and its students with the resources required to thrive in a competitive collegiate environment and future endeavors.
After an Interview with Chief Executive Officer, Allen E. “Skeeter” Bird, students learned some great information. Bird was not involved in the Alumni Association while he was a student at Northwestern, Bird said, and had no expectations to come back here to be involved. He joined the association after finishing his masters in Alaska because he felt it was right to come back to Northwestern and get connected.
A big part of helping students reach goals and find success is scholarships and donations from alumni and other donors. In this interview he said that when people reach out that are interested in donating, they listen to their passions and share the university’s needs and attempt to bring those two together.
“Our students are the most decent, connected, wonderful human beings” he said, which is what he tells the individuals who are interested. “50% of the funds that we raise are scholarships that go to students,” he said. “The other 50% create programs like the nursing program.”
They want to make sure students have quality facilities to get the education they need.
When every student graduates, the association gives them a free alumni membership and a license plate holder. As far as memberships, the association offers annual memberships and lifetime memberships for individuals or families.
There are also mentorship programs between the association and students. This year they are having a face-to-face event for students to network to help build and create relationships.
Since school is getting more expensive as the years go on, the association realized that some alumni had never been told that they should give back if capable and that needed to be changed.
“You just have to tell them what the needs are and if they can, they will help,” he said.
When he took over in 2005, there were only three people working, now there are seven.
They also only started with around 180 scholarships in 2005 and now there are about 400. Last year they brought about $1 million to the university and since we are such a small university, this has made a bigger impact.
A big way we thank our donors is our Thank-a-Thon event, which is an event where students call donors to let them know how much we appreciate them for their generosity. This event also inspires donors to donate even more sometimes, which is very generous.
They set goals every year as far as donations go, so the better they do, the higher they set the bar for the next year. Their goal this year is $3.8 million, they recently just hit $3.5 million, and they still have until July 1st to continue to get those numbers up.
“Alva needs Northwestern and Northwestern needs Alva.” he said.
So why should students on campus today care about the association and the foundation? The more you connect as a student and get involved now; you will have so many connections by the time you are an alumni.
“When you give back, it changes you and it makes you happier,” Bird said, “You may not know them, but you want to help them,” “You were once a young college student too and you want to help those individuals if able. “