Alumni Council Aims to Keep the CUH Spirit Alive After Graduation

After graduation, the university that students leave behind becomes an afterthought as many young adults navigate through the world. Jeannie Lum, the director of Alumni Relations at Chaminade, aims to keep current students, future graduates, and alumni connected with the university long after graduation.

“My goal is just to establish a presence,” Lum said. “At the end of the day, engage, reconnect, and just make everybody feel that the Chaminade spirit has never left their lives.”

The Alumni Council, which was created shortly after Lum’s hiring in April, is the first official council at CUH for alumni relations. Lum uses it as a “sounding board” to bounce ideas off and help find creative ways to engage and reconnect with alumni. As Lum puts it, “they know how they would like to be communicated to as alums. They know how they would like to be engaged with.”

Lum wanted to insure the council represented a variety of years and majors, with her criteria to join being a strong “Silversword Heart” and the “want to give back” through “time, talent, and/or treasure.” As a graduate of CUH herself, she received her bachelor’s degree in Communications in 2005 and a master’s in Business Administration in 2007. Lum believes in making a full-circle experience “the moment [students] decide to come on campus.”

In establishing a presence with current students, Lum has also worked with the Office of Student Activities and Leadership (OSAL), Chaminade Student Programming Board (CSPB), Career Services, and Admissions in showing current and future students the alumni network. 

“I was there at New Student Orientation,” Lum said. “And I was like sure you’re not an alum yet but let me tell you about our alumni network. We have [graduates who] have done this, done that, and then their parents … would be like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’ So at the end of the day, students feel confident about their education here at Chaminade. Parents are confident about where they sent their kids.”

The inaugural council has eight members from the classes of 1992, 1998, 2005, 2010, 2017, and two from 2018, but Lum is continually expanding her roster. Each has a variety of degrees, from Religious Studies, Psychology, International Relations, Communication, and Business Administration. She has also revamped the website under the Alumni tab on the main Chaminade page. It now features tabs to update your information, career services, transcripts, prayer requests, news about other alumni, and plans to continually update the website.

Andre “Pono” Riddle, a familiar face to many current students on campus, formerly worked as the internship coordinator and is now the academic advisor for the School of Nursing.

“I’ve been having this need to give back to Chaminade because of all the experiences I’ve had, and I want to be that young voice,” Riddle said. “I want to be the voice for our young alumni especially. They graduate and then it’s like [they] kind of [fall] off and they don’t have any communication with the university at all. I want to help bridge that gap.”

Riddle is set to finish his master’s degree in Education with a concentration in Education Leadership this December but has no intention of leaving the university any time soon.

“It’s super fulfilling because like it’s full circle for me,” he said. “Now I work for the university, and I’m still a student in some capacity because I’m still in the master’s program. But being able to just kind of build that rapport with students and be like ‘hey you know, don’t forget we have an Alumni Council, and we’re here for you, like stay connected with us.’ … That’s how I plan to give back. It’s just continuing that conversation, get more people to join the council, [continuing] that tether and that relationship, and just keep building that.”

Chaminade Alumni Council Inaugural members:
Roselee Aguigui, BA Business Administration, 2018
Ohulani Aiona Battisto, MBA, 2008
Suzy Cerda, BS International Relations, 1992
Antonia Coffelt, BA Communications, 2005
Luana Moreno, BA Religious Studies, 2017
Jana Paz, BA Business Administration, 1998, MBA 2018
Andre “Pono” Riddle, BS Psychology, 2018
Kuldip Shergill, BS Accounting, 2010, MBA 2012

Recent Additions:
Darian (Tolentino) Padilla, BS 2015, MBA 2018
Cassandra (Bohe) Bae, 2008
Lynsey (Johnson) Bow, 2008, MS 2012
Dominique Bocanegra, 2013
Brother Dennis Schmitz, SM 1971
Elijah Abramo, 2021
Scheryl Young, 1990