November is the time to be thankful, a time to remember and to embrace those who enrich our lives. I am thankful for so many things, including SU and You!
On November 6, the Alumni Association Board of Directors met to socialize in the beautiful rotunda of the Health & Life Sciences Building on campus. The evening was filled with fun, laughter and smiles. On Saturday, we got down to business and installed six new board members (pictured). President Tracy Fitzsimmons shared with us “Excellence and Caring” and SU’s 2025 Strategic Plan. We also had the opportunity to learn more about SU’s standards of conduct from Rhonda VanDyke Colby, VP for Student Life and staff members Elizabeth Hand and Whitney Pennington.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Gratitude was what I was feeling on November 16th as I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for The Village and Caruthers House. As I stood on the former softball field behind Goodson Chapel-Recital Hall, I could see how our past which represented the Board of Trustees’ vision to create apartment-style residence halls was now our present, and will open in August 2016.
SU enriches the lives of alumni, faculty, staff, students and community members and is always looking to the future, living in the present and building on the past. I am so proud and grateful for the pleasure of serving you and to be a part of such an amazing organization. I am reminded once again that gratitude unlocks the fullness of life It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. So, I thank you for everything you do to make SU an organization that we can all be proud of and I wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving, with friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving!
Rebecca A. Merriner ’01
SU Alumni Association President