West Virginia University is building on the “tremendous momentum” of the past year, President Jim Clements said Thursday, speaking to alumni whom he credited with laying the foundation for the optimism and success surrounding the state’s flagship university.
“Your lives tell the WVU story like no one else – the story of opportunity, the story of growth and the story of transformation,” Clements said at the annual alumni luncheon in Washington, where thousands of Mountaineer graduates live and work.
“You are not only our strongest supporters, you are the story of our success,” he said. “You make us proud in every state, around the nation and throughout the world.”
Proceeds from the luncheon, sponsored by the National Capital chapter of the WVU Alumni Association, support scholarships and other philanthropic opportunities at the University.
Clements showcased alumni who exhibit the true Mountaineer spirit. He told their stories of triumph and said they hold a key to the future of West Virginia’s flagship institution.
One of these is a new alumna: Paige Lavender, a 2011 graduate and WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior. Clements lauded the Charleston native’s hard work and innovation as a student.
Lavender helped create a memorial website called “Faces of the Mine” for the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster. It initially began as a journalism class project but Lavender said she would continue managing the website after graduation. Clements noted that she built the website by incorporating many of the skills she mastered at WVU – video, photography, audio and writing.
She’s taken those skills, and a wealth of work experience from various West Virginia media organizations, to Washington, D.C., where she has started a job as a multimedia and editorial intern for the Huffington Post.
“In that role and in future ones, she considers herself a world ambassador for WVU and for West Virginia,” Clements said, recalling Lavender’s own words: “Everyone who graduates from WVU represents the Mountaineers. I want to show the world what West Virginians can do,” she has said.
Paving the road for the university’s newest alumni are their predecessors – the more seasoned ambassadors who continually return to WVU and contribute to its greatness.
Thomas Menighan, who graduated from WVU’s School of Pharmacy in 1974, represents this brand of alumni. Menighan’s storied career evolved from a mom-and-pop drug store in Sistersville where Menighan bought chemicals for his chemistry set in fifth grade. Menighan wound up working there through college.
Menighan, a former president of the American Pharmacists Association, served as the keynote speaker for the WVU School of Pharmacy’s commencement in May.
Clements said, “Tom told our graduates: ‘You don’t have to wait for orders to come from above. You can step out there and lead. ... Do it today. Start a path’ “
The luncheon also provided an opportunity for the extended WVU family to acknowledge the support of West Virginia’s congressional delegation: Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin, who attended, and Reps. David McKinley, Shelley Moore Capito and Nick Joe Rahall, who were unable to attend.
In addition to updating the gathering on WVU’s recent growth and accomplishments and extraordinary alumni, Clements touted the Heritage Project, a unique undertaking that tells the history of WVU through the eyes of its graduates.
The project, a collaboration of the Alumni Association, Emeritus Graduates and University Relations, will allow alumni from all over the world to share their memories of WVU. The project website will become an archive of stories, photographs, music and audio interviews.
“It is a labor of love that will give all graduates the opportunity to tell, record and share their stories,” Clements said.
“For generations to come, Mountaineers everywhere will come to understand the history of WVU – told story by story, memory by memory, person by person.”
He ended his remarks with a video, available at heritageproject.wvu.edu, that helps tell the WVU story.
“We are asking for your help, your willingness to share your memories and to spread the word about the Heritage Project,” he said.
“Each WVU graduate embodies the Mountaineer spirit of hard work, loyalty, strength dedication, and the commitment to helping others succeed.”
The WVU Alumni Association, chartered in 1873, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping alumni connected and engaged in the life of WVU. Its more than 100 registered chapters and constituent groups help to extend the reach of WVU globally.
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