By Anamaria Soler, Honors College Intern
On February 4-8, 2019, the FIU Alumni Association hosted their 6thannual “Panther Alumni Week” or PAW for short, which is an event that “connects students with alumni through class, presentations, industry panels, and networking events,” according to the Alumni Association website. This event allows current students and recent graduates to build relationships with the alumni that will help them with career opportunities and future job endeavors.
Throughout the week, the alumni are invited on campus to give the students advice on what they wish they knew when they were in school and how to succeed in the real world. Each alumnus has their own story as to what their life was like after the chapter of college was over for them. Many of them came into classes (in particular, first year Honors lasses) to give insight of what they do professionally, how they got to where they currently are, and what tools FIU gave them to follow the path they did.
Some of the most notable alumni from the Honors College who participated in PAW were Gerald Grant, member of the FIU Board of Trustees; Birgitta Rausch-Montoto, Director of FIU Faculty and Global Affairs; and successful entrepreneur, Joel Gandara.
For Panther Alumni Week, every college invites alumni to speak to the students of that specific college. Usually, that involves going to classes that are major specific, meaning that they are consisted of students who will graduate soon. The Honors College takes a different approach to this. They invite the alumni to impact their first-year students from all fields and majors. One of the students, Cristine Arguelles, says about the experience: “Hearing from an Honors College alumni was very informative for me. It allowed me to get advice from someone who once was in my shoes on what the ‘real world’ is like.”
Thank you to all of our alumni for participating in PAW 2019.
