August 2012

(Posted August 31, 2012 )

Mazey@BG Alumni and Friends Archive

Dear Alumni and Friends:

The start of the academic year is always an exciting time at BGSU. We’re just wrapping up Fall Welcome events for our incoming students — a lively mix of experiential learning opportunities, food, fun and entertainment to connect them to resources that will boost their academic success and help them become engaged on campus and with the community.

With an average high school grade point average of 3.27, our freshman class of more than 3,600 students is one of the academically strongest classes in the last 30 years. Twenty-two percent are students of color and our freshmen hail from 33 states and the District of Columbia.

I was also pleased to welcome more than 200 new international students, representing more than 33 countries, to our BG campus. As I shared with you last month, I just completed a trip to China to meet with our academic partner institutions there. Strengthening our international collaborations by bringing more students here and helping more of our students study abroad is critical in preparing our students to compete in today’s global economy. During my trip, it was wonderful to visit with Barbara Zhang, a BGSU alum who lives in China and with BGSU students who were “home” for the summer.

I’m not the only one who had an exciting summer. A number of our students participated in impressive co-op, internship and service learning opportunities. They’ve been sharing their wonderful experiences on our website over the past couple of weeks.

We’re proud of our new Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Gerontology (MSIG) degree program. The only program of its kind in the state, the degree is designed to prepare professionals in a variety of fields to provide services to older adults and their families, or prepare students for pursuit of a doctoral degree.

Our student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom. In the past few weeks, the tennis program earned ITA Academic Team honors, the volleyball squad was an AVCA Team Academic award winner, and the track and field team was a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.

The BGSU football team opens the season tomorrow at Florida. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. Be sure to catch the team live from “The Swamp.” Our home opener is just eight days away as the Falcons welcome Idaho to Doyt Perry Stadium. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. on Sept. 8.

I hope you’re making plans to come back to campus for Homecoming Sept. 24-30—we have lots of special events just for alumni this year. The campus activities start on Sept. 24 and include the Academy of Distinguished Alumni dinner, Sept. 27, and the big game against Rhode Island, Sept. 29.

Do you have a favorite homecoming memory? Share it on my Facebook page.

Regards,
Mary Ellen Mazey, Ph.D.
President