From student mentorship, to alumni events, to fundraising for scholarships, Oxy’s alumni affinity groups offer a community built around a particular interest or affiliation, and are some of the most active Tigers.
This year was no different! In fact, many of these groups successfully brought alumni together from around the world to connect and support each other and current Oxy students.
"Our mission: help Oxy achieve its mission. Our goal: build community among current and future Black alumni and with Oxy."
"We found that doing our book club discussions via Zoom allowed us to welcome new members from far-flung locations, which enriched our conversations and deepened our understanding."
"While the world faced novel and heartbreaking challenges, the College leadership and staff provided critical support to our network to ensure continuity and connection."
“I give to the Oxy API Scholarship to ensure that doors of opportunity remain open to this generation’s best and brightest students.”
While many of our alumni organizations remained active this year,
the following are some notable highlights from Oxy's affinity groups.
Oxy's API alumni gather periodically to keep in touch and be a resource for the College, alumni, and current Oxy students. Our shared goals are the celebration of Asian culture, assistance, and mentorship for personal and career growth. This past year, API was proud to meet with President Elam early in his first year to discuss our experiences as API students and alumni, partner with other Oxy affinity groups to have meaningful discussions, and importantly, raise funds for the API Scholarship.
The Black Alumni Organization (BAO) brings together Black alumni and allies to enable a thriving Black community at Occidental College and among Oxy Black alumni. From the pandemic to police malpractice, 2020 was a difficult year. Undaunted by COVID restrictions, the Black Alumni Organization made the year better. Virtually, we hosted our annual Better Together academic year kick-off; helped Black football players process the end of football; started the Black Archive Project to preserve our legacy at Oxy; participated in a Day For Oxy and much more. With the OCLAA and API affinity groups we hosted events that prompted meaningful dialogue. Our mission: help Oxy achieve its mission. Our goal: build community among current and future Black alumni and with Oxy. The support of the Alumni Office is essential.
The Occidental College Latino Alumni Association (OCLAA) advocates for the educational and career advancement of Latino/a students and alumni. This past year the OCLAA Board and membership have been working diligently to keep our community connected and engaged through virtual gatherings and electronic communications. While the world faced novel and heartbreaking challenges, College leadership and staff provided critical support to our network to ensure continuity and connection. President Elam, the Alumni Office, and the Office of Institutional Advancement were particularly supportive of OCLAA this past year in helping us launch our Jose F. Silva Endowed Memorial Scholarship Campaign among other initiatives. It is a team effort and we are thrilled to be working with such an amazing group of people at Occidental!
ALOED seeks to provide a supportive networking community for Occidental students and alumni who have an interest in the education field. We serve to provide networking opportunities, online resources for communication, exposure to distinguished education speakers, forums for discussion of current books and topics in education. During this past year, our group was able to demonstrate our flexibility and pivot to remain connected despite the pandemic. We focused on books that were relevant to the changes in the educational setting, lessons learned from distance learning and ways that teachers could use their experiences to improve their teaching. We found that doing our book club discussions via Zoom allowed us to welcome new members from far-flung locations, which enriched our conversations and deepened our understanding. One highly international session included someone in Portugal and someone in the Philippines, who was actually teaching remotely in Morocco. We look forward to meeting again in person, but are resolved to stay in touch with our new “remote” members by adopting “high flex” teaching techniques to our repertoire!
This past year and a half, Oxy has been working to activate the LGBTQIA+ affinity group which aims to create space and a sense of community for Queer and Trans members of the Occidental College network. Thus far, the LGBTQIA+ affinity group held two Pride events and a student-alumni-employee film screening of Netflix’s Disclosure. Alumni are encouraged to reach out to the Intercultural Community Center for opportunities to volunteer, provide philanthropic support and connect with current Queer & Trans students.
Learn more about the various alumni and affinity group organizations at Oxy.