Dr. Jim Sanders \u201984 wants to give back to his alma mater by helping current students. Sanders, assistant athletic director for the Kansas City Public Schools, organized fellow alumni last year to form the Black Alumni Network. The new group has two goals: help black alumni reconnect and help current black students. He chairs the committee that has members from across the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see today\u2019s students and remember what it was like to be in college,\u201d said Sanders, who lives in Parkville, Missouri.<\/p>\n
He said the network wants to mentor black students and help them find connections in their career fields when they get ready to graduate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can give them tips and tell them who they need to talk to,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to help them achieve their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The network is collaborating with the Center for Multicultural Education and its coordinator, Latoya Fitzpatrick. She first connected with Sanders when she asked him to speak at the multicultural graduate reception in May 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw such promise in these students,\u201d he said. \u201cI told them, \u2018Missouri Western gives you opportunities a lot of schools won\u2019t. They don\u2019t care where you came from or what color you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Black Alumni Network provides great role models for current students,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cThey can come back to their alma mater, see old friends and connect with current students. They (alumni) can show current students the end goal of graduating and getting a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The network plans to host an event over Homecoming weekend in an effort to recruit new members. The historically black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, is holding a reunion that weekend, and the network plans to coordinate its gathering with that group. Lai-Monte Hunter \u201999, a member of the fraternity and a member of the network, is serving as a liaison between the two organizations.<\/p>\n
Along with Sanders and Hunter, who lives in New Hampshire, committee members include Chemia Woods \u201908, in Arkansas, and Rev. Robert \u201995 and Kimberly \u201992 Warren, in St. Joseph, Missouri. (An article about the Warrens is on p. 30-31.)<\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick said she appreciates that alumni want to help current students. \u201cSeeing where they (students) can be is really impactful for students,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see mentors outside of the University.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders said he is looking forward to becoming more connected with both students and alumni. \u201cTo me, Missouri Western is not just a college, it\u2019s a family. It always is and always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dr. Jim Sanders \u201984 wants to give back to his alma mater by helping current students. Sanders, assistant athletic director for the Kansas City Public Schools, organized fellow alumni last year to form the Black Alumni Network. The new group has two goals: help black alumni reconnect and help current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,43,52,33,37,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4438,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions\/4438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}