More than 80 University of Texas at Dallas alumni gathered at New York City’s Park Avenue Tavern in March — mostly reveling in the fact that so many UT Dallas alumni live and work in the Big Apple.
About three-quarters of the attendees to the midtown Manhattan happy hour were Naveen Jindal School of Management alumni.
The most frequently heard comment was “thank you for doing this,” said Brittany Huber, JSOM director for development and alumni relations, who attended the event. “Most of them were surprised there were so many UT Dallas alums in the city. A lot of them didn’t even realize we have a full UT Dallas alumni chapter in New York City.”
Among the pleasant surprises — two alumni who both work for Verizon but didn’t realize they both graduated from UT Dallas until they showed up at the venue.
“In New York City, people tend to look for their pack,” says Jack Sun, BS’02, CEO of Sino Garden International Development Corp., which is based in the New York-New Jersey area. “A local alumni network provides resources, connections and mutual benefits.”
The New York City alumni chapter was established by Matthew Thompson, BS’12, shortly after he moved there. Thompson, who landed in the area after earning his marketing degree, worked for marketing agencies before joining Accenture as a consultant.
Regional alumni chapters are easy to establish, especially now with JindalConnect, which allows fellow Comets to search for alumni by location. The list of existing university chapters is limited, so the opportunities are large to form a new chapter. The requirements for setting up a chapter are brief, and Jasmine Carter, the Jindal School’s director of alumni relations, is happy to assist.
“We love to reconnect with our Comets and help them grow their networks in their own cities,” Carter says.
