If Alcorn has not succeeded in persuading its alumni to give after four years of experience on its campus, after having been subjected to the whole educational program of the institution, it has failed in its mission. If Alcorn trains its students to "get" but fails to train them to "give", it really has no good reason for existence.

 

It must be the hallmark of the alumni that they are "giving" people.

 

As Alcornites that applies to everything about you -- your vocational service, your family life, your church activity, and your community relations. Giving should be evidenced also in your relationship to your alma mater, Alcorn. It is in teaching people to give -- of themselves, their efforts, their devotion and their means -- that universities like Alcorn really have their mission.

 

If that is true, then joining the National Alumni Association, contributing regularly to the Alcorn Foundation, recruiting students, and promoting the university's like interests in the community become a yardstick for measuring how well Alcorn has been doing the job which is its reason for existence.

 

Your involvement in the National Alumni Association and participation in its many support programs are specific, concrete yardsticks, sent to Alcorn, to keep its records up to date. It's like sending a sample of your life back to those who are engaged in teaching another student generation, to let them know that you are keeping the faith with them by being a members of the alumni association and a "giving person."

 

What alumni program you participate in or how much time and money you give isn't nearly as important as the fact that you are reporting in. If you do that regularly, I am sure you will see to it that the sample is one that does you justice.

 

Source:  http://www.alcorn.edu/alumni/alumni-association/index.aspx