BECOME AN ADMISSIONS VOLUNTEER
Many of you will remember this experience: You're a senior in high school trying to decide which college to attend. Your family, friends, guidance counselors, teachers, and seemingly everyone you meet offer advice. You attend a college fair. You send away for brochures, catalogs, and videotapes, which then blur into a succession of smiling faces and manicured college grounds. You don't know which major to choose. You're confused and a bit intimidated by it all.
At that time in a student's life, a personal touch is needed. That's where Northeastern alumni step in. No one is better as a university representative than a graduate. Each of us can relate personal tales of success and disappointment-an honest approach that high school seniors and their parents appreciate. We can recommend departments, courses, and professors. We can talk about the co-op system and how it complemented our studies, gave us a start professionally, or at least helped us decide what we didn't want to do. We can reminisce about student life along Huntington Avenue.
As admissions representatives, alumni can play a key role in Northeastern's future. We can help recruit the next generation of students to walk through the campus-students who, like so many of us, have the drive and ambition to succeed but may lack the access or financial resources to get a college education. A successful graduate can be very influential in attracting high-caliber students to apply and attend. Alumni volunteers assist the admissions office by visiting high schools, representing the university at college fairs, and hosting receptions for prospective students and their parents, among other activities.
That future N.U. grad may be your own child. To attract more sons and daughters of alums to attend Northeastern, the Alumni Association has pledged $60,000 to create the Gene Reppucci Scholarship, named for the man who retired in 1995 as senior vice president for development after a dedicated career of thirty-three years at the university. The first awards were presented to incoming students last year.
Becoming an admissions volunteer is an opportunity for you to make a difference, to your university and to the future of many young men and women. The admissions office provides all the information and materials you need. Northeastern will offer a weekend training seminar next summer for those alums who want to get involved in recruiting. Please call the Office of Alumni Relations at 617-373-3186 to add your name to the list.
I encourage you to volunteer.
-Deborah B. McConchie, BA'75, is president of the Alumni Association.
