Bonded by Paper – Challenge Accepted

Stronger as a Pack

As we rethink many of our approaches, efforts and events during the global pandemic, our annual class contest was certainly one of them. We are proud of our individual giving/alumni relations committee and our class ambassadors for their creative approach to this year’s efforts. Our desire, in September and ongoing, was to connect with and provide support to each other, with a flair of competitiveness  – together! Our team created an opportunity to help others in need and connect with each other as we ARE “Stronger as a Pack”.

History of Success

In years past, our annual class contest has revolved around percent participation in giving over an entire calendar year. It is no small feat that from 2015 to 2019 we have gone from 8.7% participation to 18.9% participation. Our program has such a longstanding history of caring, community, supporting and helping. Our alumni carry these values going forward and are exceptional at providing the types of support they were afforded when in college. Over the years we have seen as much as 91% of our classes participating, winners ranging from the 1960s to the newest graduating class and individual classes reaching 85% participation goals and 400% improvement over past years. These are amazing accomplishments.

One Goal Met, One to Go

This year, however, we knew we needed something different; something to connect us together. Thus, Bonded by Paper became our 2020 effort. We extended this effort through September of 2020 to encompass NC State’s record breaking Day of Giving on September 16. We set goals to reach together, instead of by class.  Goal #1 was to raise $10,000 in support for our newly created Paper Science Success Award. This scholarship will allow us to provide need based assistance to our paper science and engineering students. We EXCEEDED this goal by the generosity of many of you! Goal #2 was to provide a platform to connect us with our classmates. Our digital class book was created with a goal of 50% alumni participation. We are still aiming to achieve this goal by the end of the calendar year. We currently have 10.7% of our alumni who have created pages. If the alumni that have started a draft of their page finished it today, we would be at 12%. This digital class book is for pulp and paper/paper science and engineering alumni only, and current students.  YOU can help by creating your page and encouraging others to do so. Invitations were sent to the email we have on file and several alumni found them in their spam folder. If you have not received an invitation, please contact Jennifer Piercy at jmpiercy@ncsu.edu

How Can We Help You?

Finally, we have opened up our in house Career Placement Services to those alumni whose job has been affected by the pandemic. If you desire support and assistance in this area, please contact Brittany Hayes at brhayes2@ncsu.edu (all interactions are confidential).