Morningside Connect

Here we are – two weeks into the New Year! If you are like most of us, you made New Year’s resolutions in an effort to do things differently in the coming year. It’s an important exercise.

I am a strong believer that we must look back in order to look forward. I don’t care to be singularly focused on looking in the rear view mirror. Let me share with you why.

As the director of alumni relations at Morningside College, I have a foot planted in the past, but I need to be moving forward at the same time. Looking back and looking forward. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? It really isn’t, as long as we understand the need to have both in some sort of balance.

Last June, President Reynders created strategic planning task forces across the college, asking us to look at what we’ve been doing in the past and then determine what we should be doing in the future. As our small alumni relations group grappled with where we have been and where we are going, I was guided by what Steve Jobs, the founder and chair of Apple, once observed:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

So as the alumni office looked to the future, it was important to those of us on the committee to have input from alumni, students, staff and friends of the college. We asked questions such as the following: What kinds of programs should we have in the future? What programs for young alumni, retired alumni and everyone in between? What should they look like? What are we doing to build a strong alumni base for the future with programs for current students? What should we be doing? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the office? To say the least, it was a sobering yet exciting exercise!!

We haven’t landed on exactly what the task force’s final recommendations might be, other than to say we will be much stronger and more focused on advancing the cause of building relationships at Morningside College. While we are most proud of our past accomplishments, we must continue to “look through the windshield” at the future. It cannot happen without you! With your continued help, support and prayers – it will happen!

Gene Ambroson

Director of Alumni Relations