Alumni News + Notes
Our Alumni CAAN!
It’s official: Columbia College Chicago is forming alumni chapters across the country. During the 2006 Manifest Alumni Reunion in May, we met with a group of passionate alumni representing Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago to create the Columbia College Alumni Association and Network (CAAN). The purpose of CAAN is to unite Columbia’s 80,000-plus alumni through a diverse network of chapters across the country. The goals of each chapter will reflect the desires of the individuals who become involved, with committees working to support scholarships, provide mentorship, welcome young alumni, organize special events, and more.
Amid the activities of Manifest, Columbia’s end-of-the-year student showcase and alumni reunion, CAAN organizers and representatives convened for the first time to initiate the creation of a system of regional chapters. Columbia has been without a formal alumni chapter organization for the past few years, and we all agree the benefits to alumni will be great.
We feel strongly that a chapter system will allow our alumni to network and stay in touch with each other and the college. Through CAAN, chapter members will have a structure through which to mentor, support, and motivate our fellow alumni, and serve as examples to current students and recent alumni of the value of retaining our Columbia connections after graduation.
This is a great opportunity to create a national network of support for Columbia and for each other. By the end of this year’s Manifest reunion weekend, alumni from Phoenix, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. had expressed interest in forming chapters in their areas. Updates on the progress of CAAN are available through the alumni web site. In the meantime, a great way to stay in touch is through the Online Community.
Sincerely,
Josh Culley-Foster (’03)
Associate Director of Alumni Relations
Bill Cellini (’94)
Alumni Association President
