Dear Fellow Alumni,<\/p>\n
As I sit down to write to you all, I feel at a loss for words. We started this spring semester
\noff with great momentum. The fall had us growing our community with so many
\nsuccessful and exciting events. Basketball season took off and we looked\u00a0great! We also were able to welcome a new Executive Director of Alumni\u00a0Relations, Kim Weddle. And then as life happens, we entered into the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
But before I address the pandemic, I do want to give a big heartfelt Griffon welcome to
\nKim Weddle \u201900. As a graduate, she is passionate about Missouri\u00a0Western and is looking forward to meeting with alumni and continuing to take\u00a0this momentum to the next level.<\/p>\n
I also want to give a shoutout to our stellar Griffon basketball teams. We finished the\u00a0season with some fabulous stats. Our men\u2019s team ended 18-14 and the women with\u00a0a 21-8 record. Oh, and were they ever fun to watch \u2013 impressive Griffs!<\/p>\n
This year March Madness took on a whole new meaning as the pandemic took hold. For the first time ever, as you probably know, on-site classes were cancelled for the rest of\u00a0the spring semester. As I was struck with bits of melancholy as events were getting cancelled, I had another thought: We Griffons do not get discouraged. We rally and we fight. We\u2019ve seen it all year in our growing events, in our sports teams performances and in our alumni support. This is a chance for us to grow closer.<\/p>\n
I look back on my college days with great fondness, as those days helped to really shape a lot of the person I have grown into. This is an opportunity for us to find new ways to connect with each other and with our alma mater. This is a great opportunity for us to start thinking of how we can recruit, promote retention, and give back. It is our opportunity to push that momentum to the next level, as we come together as a world, a nation, a community, as a Griffon family. I challenge each of to reach out to an old college friend, share a story with Kim or share your love of MWSU on social media. I implore you to flood Kim\u2019s email with all of us sending support to the students as they face a new way of learning and connecting.<\/p>\n
My heart goes out to everyone who is directly affected by the virus. I applaud MWSU leaders for taking proactive steps to keep us safe. Let\u2019s hear that MWSU alumni pride\u00a0so loud virtually that we forget we aren\u2019t together in person.<\/p>\n
Go Griffs!<\/p>\n
Tona Williams \u201900
\nPresident
\nMWSU Alumni Association<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Fellow Alumni, As I sit down to write to you all, I feel at a loss for words. We started this spring semester off with great momentum. The fall had us growing our community with so many successful and exciting events. Basketball season took off and we looked\u00a0great! We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":4983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853"}],"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\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4854,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions\/4854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}