So I carry around in my pocket a card that denotes me as an official Lifetime Member of the Valparaiso University Alumni Association, which I received with other information at the Grad Finale event about a month and a half before graduation. It's a nice feeling to have this sense of connection with my dear alma mater.
It gets even better when I have the opportunity to engage with the community in my status as an alumnus. And that's just what I did on two different occasions earlier this month, both of them about a week and a half apart.
Being a fresh graduate, I retain many connections to Valparaiso University in the many people I knew during my time there who are still current students and professors. I was looking for an opportunity to go back and visit, to see many of these people, hoping to do so sometime early in the new semester.
Within a short amount of time, I decided to pay Valparaiso University my first official visit as an alumnus. This would be my second time back in Valparaiso since graduating, the other time having been back at the beginning of August, when I went to the St. Teresa's picnic and then spent some time with the Ruggabers. And while I was within a very short distance of campus, I never actually set foot on it during that visit.
So on a Sunday evening, September 8, I caught the South Shore Line to northwest Indiana--sharing the company of the many Bears fans leaving the first home game--and then made my way down to Valparaiso via the V-Line. (I was really delighted when the train pulled into the Dune Park station, and I walked right off, rather than having to walk down the stairs at one end of the car, since a new raised platform is partially complete.)
At approximately 6:54 PM CDT, I walked off the V-Line, crossed over the landscaped divide at the southern edge of LaPorte Avenue and stepped onto campus. My first stop was my longtime home base at Wehrenberg Hall. My great friend Zach is a resident assistant there, so I was headed to his accommodations to drop off my bags, as I would be spending the night there, spread out on a sleeping bag on his floor.
I spent the next hour visiting with other friends, like Richard. When I stepped to his place, he was on the phone with another great friend of mine, Matthew, and we talked for a bit.
Zach then took me over to Kallay-Christopher Hall, housing the meteorology department, which was my first visit back in there as an alumnus. He went to show me this really cool gadget the department recently acquired: the VisBox, which is a large device with four sizable monitors that can be used to display maps. (I found out later the department acquired this and some other electronics with grant money.)
By the time we finished up looking at the VisBox, it was past 8:30, and the biggest celebration to happen on campus at that time on a Sunday night was about to start. And so I went over to St. Teresa's for the usual 9 PM Mass. While I told some people, like Zach, Richard, and my professors that I was coming for a visit, I didn't tell anyone at St. Teresa's, so they were all in for a surprise. The greetings I received from many had an extra twinge of delight in them. (Indeed, it was interesting to watch the various reactions to my presence.) While there, I had the opportunity to see Father Jerry, of whom I have a very fond memory going back to my freshman year. John Dewyze also asked if I would be the cross bearer, and I took him up on it. (Taking on this role, even in a liturgically ceremonial way, had a unique meaning, as the readings for Mass that weekend spoke of taking up our Crosses in following Christ. In fact, these readings were the same ones proclaimed at the Mass on the Grass my sophomore year.)
The 9 PM Mass, while perhaps an oddity to outsiders, is a unique opportunity as a college student to join in the celebration of faith with those with whom one passes the time in classes and around campus. It was a true joy to be back at St. Teresa's to join in this celebration, with many other students who truly care about their faith and express it in the celebration of Mass, and to carry the fellowship forth into the dinner and social afterwards.
As late as it was by the time I left St. Teresa's, around 11 PM, I was still engaged in the fellowship of catching up with people, even with Zach as we headed off into sleep. It was like old times being in the same room with Zach.
The next day I put myself back into the throngs of students heading around to classes. While I didn't have to rush around to stick to the new 10-minute passing period, I still kept myself on the move, going all over campus, seeing the buildings I had spent much time in, and visiting with professors in their offices, as well as other students. And I managed to cover a lot of ground, seeing nearly all of my former professors.
It was great sitting with professors in their offices, as I shared updates on my life and they shared updates on the current happenings at the university, as well as their musings on life, like what it was like to be done with undergraduate studies. I also made it my business to be back at the Chapel, a place that also served as a center of spiritual life for me as a student, for the weekday morning Chapel service, held at its new time, 10 AM.
I am glad to see the positive change that has come for Chapel services with the new schedule. It has been moved to a different time, and campus organizations are now respecting that time as dedicated to being at the Chapel, for those who wish to choose to attend the service, keeping it free of any meetings or other activities. I got abreast of these and other happenings while I was on campus, through talking with people, and even reading the Torch newspaper. (I was glad to be reminded that while I am off campus, I can still keep up with the Torch online.) I even got to see the inside of the swanky new Welcome Center.
I headed back home in the early afternoon, having finished a wonderful visit at ValpU, with many opportunities to reconnect with all the friendly faces there. I was able to experience what I heard many people say, that even after being away from college friends and colleagues for extended periods of time, the reconnections that take place make it seem like hardly a beat has been missed. I certainly found that to be very true. In some ways, it seemed like I blended right back in to campus. As Ms. Weil, one of the assistants in the Christ College Dean's office, saw me walking down a hallway in Mueller Hall, she said I still had the air of a college student, and it was as if I had never left.
About a week and a half later, on the evening of September 18, I got myself suited up and drove north from Oak Park to the Chicago Botanic Garden, embedded in the resplendent northern suburbs. I had accepted an invitation to attend an event held as part of the President's Tour, in which President Heckler is going around the country over the course of several months to various cities to meet with alumni and friends of the university to talk about what's happening on campus.
I hadn't been to the Botanic Garden in a while, so this seemed like a good opportunity to go up there, as well as to connect with the people there. It was indeed so therapeutic being there, which I sensed as soon as I turned into the Garden off Lake Cook Road, after a somewhat hectic drive. As part of our evening, the attendees had a private tram tour of the various garden spaces there. President Heckler and his wife Veronica came and sat next to me as we boarded, which was my first opportunity to see President Heckler since having shaken his hand and taken my diploma from him while walking across the stage at graduation. We got some good views of the garden, as well as some amazing sky scenes, with severe storms flashing lightning off to the south, and the sun shining through the breaking clouds toward the west.
After the tram ride, we went back into the rented space for appetizers and such. I got talking with the other attendees, including alumni, parents of current students, and the staff at the Office of Institutional Advancement.
Then there were some remarks by President Heckler, preceded by a video flashing current university statistics, including the record numbers of the total student population, incoming first-year class, graduate student, and international students.
During his remarks, he made some astounding statements that spoke about character. He said that what sets ValpU apart is that it fosters strong moral character in its students, so that they can make a true impact out in the world beyond the campus. He spoke about a conversation he had with another university president, who wanted his institution to be all about prestige. But President Heckler desired not prestige, but quality, of the institution and its students.
He then encouraged those gathered to do their part to help the university and its students. When it came to donating financial resources, he spoke not necessarily about giving large sums, but having a drive to support an institution that means so much. He then brought attention to me, saying that two days before graduating, I had made a donation to the university, not knowing what was ahead of me, but having a strong sense of what I had been given. I had indeed made a small gift as one of many errands I was taking care of in the days leading up to graduation. The senior class gift was contributions to the Valpo Fund, and I thought it was worth giving a little something, as a way of giving back to a place that had given me an extraordinary experience. I didn't realize my small gift could mean that much, and I was humbled to be so recognized by President Heckler.
I had a great time at this gathering, in the scenic setting and making connections. It was definitely designed as an event for alumni and supporters, and it was my first opportunity to engage in my new role in the university community.
Indeed, the experiences I had at ValpU keep me connected with that place in an almost mystical way. While I am not physically present on campus all the time, I am somehow still connected to it by the profundity of what I went through there. And I think of it in terms of the Last Supper Discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
Two weeks before graduation, I was talking with a dear friend of mine at St. Teresa's. She told me how much she was going to miss me. I then spoke of the glorious words Christ spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper. He told them, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:18-19 ESV). There's a sense here that while Christ would not be present physically with His disciples for much longer, they would still know His presence because He would still be with them, albeit in a different way, which Jesus names as the Holy Spirit, God's presence dwelling within them. The day I had this conversation was in the midst of the Easter liturgical season, progressing from the celebration of Christ's life to the imparting of the Spirit at Pentecost, after Christ's departure. Some of the Gospel readings on the Sundays of the Easter/Christlife season were from this Last Supper Discourse in John, so I had the words on my mind to bring out in such apt timing, as I marked physically leaving ValpU campus.
I am still connected to Valparaiso University. I sense that connection so powerfully when it comes to the relationships I forged on the Plains of Valparaiso. I say that the human factor makes all the difference in our lives, and that was definitely the case in the relationships I built with students and professors, in and out of classes. I don't think too much about all the work I had to do while there, but I think about the people all the time.
As an alumnus, I engage with the community in a different way, by carrying forth the skills and formation I received in my maturation as a person there as I go forth. And I support the mission of the university even as I do so, in addition to whatever I give back to the university. I delight in this new role I have, because there's so much I can do, so much I have to offer my alma mater, and others, even in my hometown. I do so because this university did much not just to educate me and equip me with skills, but to shape my character to be grounded in moral principles as espoused by a Christian institution.
I can't wait to see what more I can do as a Valparaiso University alumnus. For now, dear ValpU, you remain in my prayers as I commend you and all on your campus to God's grace. And Happy Founders' Day!
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