By Maroon & White |
Being President of the Saint Mary’s Alumni Association since October 2014 has given me many opportunities to interact with fellow alumni, faculty and especially with the students. It is a great pleasure to spend time with our future leaders. I attend as many events as I am able.
Last September I was assisting our Alumni Office with Welcome Week for new students and I saw a familiar face. I went over and asked if he remembered me and he said of course. I had taught him in Primary and now he was a freshman at SMU. It was great to catch up with him. I seem to spend quite a bit of time with the SMUSA students, some of whom are on various Board of Governors’ committees with me. It is a privilege to spend time with these young people and listen to their ideas and dreams, dreams that we had at their ages those many years ago—for some of us a very long time ago! The teacher’s interest in our young citizens never fades.
In the last six months we have had many changes at Saint Mary’s. At our Winter Convocation in January, Dr. Paul D. Sobey was installed as our new Chancellor. He has been a very good friend to Saint Mary’s and will continue to contribute as our Chancellor, following in his father’s footsteps.
In February the presidential search committee announced that our new President would be Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray, who comes to us from New Zealand via Mount Allison University and more recently Dalhousie University. Dr. Summerby-Murray will begin his presidential duties on July 1. We are very excited to welcome him to our university and I am hoping that many of our Alumni will make a point of meeting him.
There were also many student-centred events I was very happy to attend. Saint Mary’s is a happening place and I am so honoured to be president of our 42,000 alumni. Please enjoy our spring Maroon & White and catch up on alumni from around the world. Do get connected with each other and with the Alumni Office. Come and visit our campus and see all that may be new since you were a student. And if you are in town please come out and cheer on our teams—it is a great way to support our community while having fun with your family and friends. Go Huskies Go!
Mary-Evelyn Ternan
BA’69, BEd’70, MEd’88
President, Saint Mary’s University Alumni Association
