![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/AABOD-2018-1024x588.jpg\")
Garcia told the crowd she looks forward to getting to know the FIU alumni community in her time as president, and that she\u2019s already spoken to many alumni who, like her, \u201cfeel like they never left FIU.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the backbone of our university,\u201d Garcia said, imploring alumni to remain engaged with their alma mater. \u201cWithout you, FIU wouldn\u2019t be what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the event, Duane Wiles, associate vice president and executive director\u00a0for the Office of Alumni Relations & Annual Giving, encouraged attendees to show pride in their alma mater by supporting athletics, attending homecoming and making gifts in support of the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time for our alumni to talk up FIU, to rep FIU, to be the voice of FIU, to tell the FIU story and to be activists,\u201d Wiles said.<\/p>\n
Attendees were treated to a special guest: FIU Football Head Coach Butch Davis. Under Davis\u2019 leadership, FIU roared into the national spotlight in 2017, heading to St. Petersburg for the program\u2019s first bowl game in six years and finishing the season with eight wins.<\/p>\n Davis introduced four members of the promising 2018 team and recognized several of FIU\u2019s other successful athletic programs, including Beach Volleyball and Women\u2019s Tennis. He stressed the importance of alumni supporting FIU student-athletes and their alma mater by attending games and buying season tickets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need you,\u201d Davis said, adding that it takes a lot of people \u201cto develop a culture and develop an environment that breeds success.\u201d<\/p>\n FIU alumnus Harry Pickering \u201975 and his wife Barbara, an alumna of the University of Miami, are excited for the healthy rivalry anticipated in their household this fall. They\u2019re FIU Football season ticket holders, as well as donors to FIU, and they\u2019re looking forward to watching their two alma maters face off on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be there,\u201d Barbara Pickering said. \u201cHarry will be in his FIU gear, and I\u2019ll be right next to him in mine.\u201d<\/p>\n The event highlighted the First Generation Scholarship Program, to which donations are now matched by the state of Florida 2-to-1. The program supports students at FIU who are the first in their families to attain a bachelor\u2019s degree. Nearly half of undergraduate students at FIU are first-generation.<\/p>\n Together, attendees raised $3,100 for the program, which when matched by the state became $9,300 \u2013 enough to fund one first-generation student\u2019s entire year at FIU.<\/p>\n Harry Pickering, a retired police officer, said he feels it\u2019s important to give back to FIU by supporting athletics and making gifts because FIU gave him so much.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout FIU, I wouldn\u2019t be who I am today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Daniel Leon \u201918, a political science graduate who now works in the public sector, took the opportunity to network at the reception. He plans to come back every year. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people to meet here. Anyone you want to meet in any field, they\u2019re all here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alumni, family and friends gathered at Coral Gables Country Club on May 17 to mingle and network at the 2018 Annual Cocktail Reception. The reception introduces new members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, who are sworn in each year before the event begins, to the FIU community. This year, Sean Gazit\u00faa \u201904, Cisely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[415,387,265,12,393],"class_list":["post-15478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-alumni-association","tag-alumni-association-board-of-directors","tag-events","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-young-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15478"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15487,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15478\/revisions\/15487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/ACR-Butch-221x300.jpg\")