Business Grads Call Out to Fellow Alumni
| Vickie Intriago
(B.S. Business Administration, 1991) and Roseanna Torres-Pardo (B.S.
Business Administration, 1992) began their major push to bring fellow
alumni together on Dec. 2 with a mixer at Paradise Restaurant in
Gardena, which was open to all business administration alumni. With thousands of alumni in Southern California and beyond, both Intriago and Torres-Pardo planned the mixer as the first step in developing a network of graduates from the business program. “We want graduates to know that we do exist, and it shouldn’t be that you graduate and that’s it,” said Torres-Pardo, who owns two small event planning businesses in Torrance. “We can do a lot together, from networking, catching up with each other, and helping the school.” The two alumni got involved two years ago, gradually building up a core of support from within the college. The appointment of Dean James Strong in 2003 was a strong step forward as it created some continuity to help get the organization started. “He realizes the need to pull alumni back into the college’s community,” said Intriago, a financial planner. “He brought others in too, and now we have some people who really get it.” The alums staged a mixer in the spring of 2003, which showed them there were plenty of others out there like them, looking to reconnect. In the months following the December mixer, they envision a number of events and activities like strategic networking events, reunions, an alumni referral system, mentoring events for current students, and more. They also hope to explore ways alumni can give back to CBAPP, whether its building a scholarship trust to bring in top students, nominating community and business leaders to the CBAPP Board of Directors, or a number of other ways alumni can get involved. “Some of our fellow alumni might want to give back to CSUDH, but at the end of the day, we don’t know how, so we give up. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore,” said Intriago. |
