SMC Alumni Admissions Newsletter Winter, 2008

Greetings!,

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had wonderful holiday celebrations and are gearing up for the spring. Every year, the Admissions Office relies on the strength of our alumni to help engage and inform prospective students in areas our office cannot reach. The AAP had an excellent college fair season this year, attending 48 fairs and collecting more than 700 interest cards! Your efforts have definitely paid off as we have received more than 2,500 applications this fall. I would like to thank all of you for your invaluable devotion to Saint Mary's, and also for the personal touch you convey to our students. As our attention now shifts from fall travel to spring yield, I am confident that with your help we will create a marvelous class for the fall of 2008.

THANK YOU!

Linde Waite '06

Admissions Officer, Alumni-Admissions Program Coordinator(925)631-4930 or

lwaite@stmarys-ca.edu

SPRING TELE-COUNSELING JUST AROUND THE CORNER!
The Admissions Office has already sent out nearly 1,000 acceptance letters to students, and we need your help to recruit these students over the phone. You can contact students from your hometown, high school or region to share your experience at SMC and answer any questions. These phone calls are one of our primary methods of yielding these students into the class of 2008. To sign up, contact Linde Waite.

SPRING COLLEGE FAIRS
Thank you to those who have signed up for a local college fair this spring. There are still several fairs needing representation. Please visit the AAP website to register today.

College fair schedule.

AAP MEMBER ALFONSO MENDOZA '93 HONORED

Alfonso Mendoza was honored at the Latino Alumni Awards celebration on Nov. 30. Alfonso graduated from SMC with a double major in Integral and Spanish Literature. After graduation, he spent a year as a Lasallian Volunteer in New York City at La Salle Academy. He received his master's of arts in Spanish literature from Purdue University in 1996. During his time there, he participated in a teacher exchange and taught Chicano Studies at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. He now works as a Field Advisor with the California Telephone Access Program, a nonprofit state-mandated program that provides specialized telecommunications equipment to people with disabilities.

Alfonso is a dedicated volunteer for SMC. He is one of the most active members of the Alumni-Admissions Program (attending more than eight fairs since joining the AAP!), president of the San Diego Alumni Chapter and is a member of the annual reunion committee for his class.

His number one pasttime is cruising on his HOG with his buddies. He also enjoys reading and trying to keep a steady exercise routine which includes a weekly dose of tai chi.

Originally from northern California, he now resides in San Diego, with his wife, Gabrielle Cedra, and their two daughters, Marina Cassandra (six) and Yasmin Alejandra (eleven).

Congratulations, Alfonso!

COLLEGE FAIRS COMPARISON CHART
A special thank you to those of you who attended a fair (or multiple fairs) this year. Below is the total number of college fairs attended to date, along with the numbers from previous years.

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Fairs	16	29	39	64	48

Alums	14	26	35	56	33

NEW FILIPPI ACADEMIC HALL OPENING IN JANUARY

After months of hard work and dedicated construction, Filippi Academic Hall will open for business in January. It becomes the home for the newly named Kalmanovitz School of Education, opening for classes in spring 2008. Check out the website for further details.

APPLY FOR THE LEGACY SCHOLARSHIP BY FEB. 22
Children and grandchildren of alumni who have applied to be a Saint Mary's undergraduate this fall are eligible to apply for the Lasallian Scholarship Award given out by the Alumni Board of Directors. The deadline for the scholarship, which covers up to one-third the cost of tuition is Feb. 22. If you are interested donating to this scholarship, contact the Alumni Office at (925)631-4200.
Alumni scholarship web page.