Photo © Nathan Mandell

Dallas/Fort Worth club receives Kellogg Alumni Club Award of Excellence

"These people have a genuine desire to help one another"

Although the Dallas/Fort Worth region is nearly 1,000 miles from Evanston, the Kellogg culture is alive and well in the Lone Star state.

That's largely due to the 500-member Dallas/Fort Worth Kellogg Alumni Club, which received the Kellogg Alumni Club Award of Excellence at the Kellogg Awards on April 30 (see pages 14-15). The honor recognizes the alumni club with the most improved and innovative programs.

"We are deeply honored and humbled by this award," club president Jack Rubarth '95 said at the awards ceremony. "I'm floored by our incredibly enthusiastic and engaged board members. We have a very energetic group."

Popular club events include a quarterly speaker series that focuses on industries, companies or topics undergoing significant change, and an annual career symposium, featuring networking opportunities and presentations from industry leaders.

The club is also notably proactive in its succession and event planning and networking activities, Kellogg Associate Dean of Alumni Relations Ed Wilson says. The group is led by a 20-member alumni board, with key members responsible for finance, membership and programming. The president-elect, president and past president work together during a three-year term to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership.

The club also has a presence on Twitter and Facebook, where members receive news and notice of upcoming events. The club also tries to attract recent Kellogg alumni by designating "class captains" to help engage younger graduates.

"What drives our success is the feeling that we are an extension of the Kellogg brand and that we feel the need to build the value of the Kellogg network," Rubarth says. "These people have a genuine desire to help one another." – AT