Dear Wesleyan Friends,

The theme for this spring edition of Wesleyan Magazine is our alumni. Since Wesleyan’s first graduating class was in 1998, only eleven years ago, our alumni are neither numerous nor old, and only a few are thirty. Nevertheless, with each passing year, our alumni grow in importance to the school as a sustaining force for the future. Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State and former chancellor at Vanderbilt, once said, "The issue that all of us face is that alumni want their institutions frozen in amber." Wesleyan’s alumni probably do not feel that way about our school. Instead, they have been very encouraging in support of the changes that have occurred over the last thirteen years.

The roles that alumni play in the life of an institution like Wesleyan are varied and progressive. First of all, they are the "product" that the enterprise "produces." No matter how talented the faculty, how Christ-centered the curriculum, no matter how wealthy the school, no matter how beautiful the campus, no matter what the record of sports teams, no matter how green the grass, the best thing about the school must be the alumni. They represent Wesleyan to the world by who they are and by the impact they have on the culture and society they encounter beyond their time here. As far as its purpose in the world, everything else about the school is a distant second to Wesleyan’s graduates.

If Wesleyan is truly a good place for children, it will be reflected in the attitudes, actions, and lives lived by its alumni. What the school hopes is that those lives will be examples of the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Of course, what is necessary for that to happen is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is something for which the school has worked to prepare the groundwork beginning in kindergarten and permeating every year after that.

In addition to being the school’s "product," alumni play the important lifetime role of providers for their alma mater. Alumni are the beneficiaries of the generosity of those who created a school for them to attend. The idea and practice of giving something back throughout their lifetimes to the school that nourished them as children, fulfills the natural instinct for showing gratitude.

I have always thought of alumni support as "diploma insurance." To the extent that the school is successful, its alumni bask in that reflected light and vice versa; when alumni do well, the school is viewed as having played a contributing role. Besides that, giving is simply a way of showing love. Without love and the commitment love engenders, this enterprise will fail.

Eventually, alumni will sustain Wesleyan in a different way; some will choose to send their children to the school. Wesleyan is a generation away from having alumni children graduate. In fact, we are yet to have a graduate enroll a child, but we look forward to that day when it happens.

Perhaps the ultimate role that alumni will play in the life of the school will be when they take responsibility for its survival by becoming Trustees. Currently, Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees is comprised entirely of current and former parents of the school. One day, the majority of its members likely will be alumni. By then, most will have children enrolled in the school as well. Those who serve as Trustees will have come full cycle from being provided by others a school to attend, to being fully responsible for the financial survival of the enterprise. At that point, they will also maintain and/or determine the mission of Wesleyan. It is natural to think that what they do then as Trustees will be greatly influenced by their own experiences at the school as students.

The electronic age of the 21st century has made it more practical to remain in touch with alumni through the internet. We have email addresses for the majority of our alumni, send them information about the school with regularity, and maintain our website so that they may remain as up-to-date on Wesleyan matters as they wish. The recent formation of the two Circles of Honor for Fine Arts and Athletics is an initiative to recognize certain alumni for their accomplishments at Wesleyan and beyond. Elaine Dorr, Rebecca Carpenter, Brian Kennerly, and Matt Cole in the Development and Communications Offices have begun a special visitation outreach effort at college campuses with concentrations of Wesleyan alumni. As the old Chinese proverb reads, "Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand." Wesleyan is working to involve its alumni in more meaningful ways in the months and years ahead.

The Class of 2009 is the school’s first to attend all thirteen years on the Norcross campus. Thirty-one out of the ninety-one members of this class have been here since 1996, the year of the move from Sandy Springs United Methodist Church. These "Evergreens," including my youngest son, Townshend, have seen all the trailers and all the construction in the years since. This is yet another milestone in the miraculous development of our school and our first alumni who have had the full Wesleyan experience "from soup to nuts."

In Christ,

Zach Young