Greetings, CALS colleagues,
Week two! I hope all is well with you, your students and our community.
Last week, while most of you were enduring the beautiful cold, a group of us made our way to the Florida sun on an annual trip to meet alumni and donors. We had the opportunity to learn about their happy and meaningful memories of Iowa State, to explore their legacy interests and commitments, to benefit from their wisdom gained over the years, and to share the excellent news of your collective work. These are wonderful people who care about what we do, who put their personal time and treasure to work for us, and who spread the word about Cyclone excellence to everyone who will listen. They work hard to recruit the next generation of students to Iowa State - not just from among their own grandchildren, but also from among the grandchildren of their friends who didn’t attend Iowa State!
A couple highlights from the trip:
- at the big university-wide event on Thursday evening, President Wintersteen gave shout-outs to great things in every college;
- we spent a full day working on ideas and plans to further develop the global outlook and engagement of the college for our students and faculty;
- we met with AGR and Farmhouse alums and further encouraged their “fun” giving-back rivalry;
- we spoke with alums from majors including agronomy, animal science, farm operations, agricultural journalism, agricultural business, fish and wildlife, rural sociology, horticulture and more; and
- we met with families that have endowed multiple named professorships in the college, probably more than 50 named scholarships, and so much more.
Have a great week, take care of each other (ask your students and colleagues, “how are you doing, REALLY?"), and please let me know what you’re thinking. - Dan
Nature in Focus
Pictured are inlets between the Gulf of Mexico and Naples, Florida - lots of interesting currents, sediments and landforms!
