Our program is young by most standards, only entering into our 10th year, but to put it in perspective: Mozart wrote his first musical piece by the age of 8. So if he's any indicator of what's to come, I think it's safe to say our program is also destined for great things. 

 

The idea started while in San Diego at the Far West Athletic Trainers Association Annual Symposium in 2015. An impromptu photo shoot by our program director, holding her terrible Patriots iPhone, while we were striking fun poses and cheesing alongside people who were strangers to me. These former CBU ATP graduates were people that were once in my shoes, stressing about finals, student loans, and passing the BOC. Some more recent than others. I thought to myself "How could I get to know this group of people better?" We have phenomenal alumni in some pretty great places; but why was it often more difficult than a DMac "quiz" to connect with the alumni as a whole? 

 

Fast forward to the same conference one year later in Kona, Hawaii.  Turns out I wasn't the only one with an idea for something great.  It was there that Sarah Beene also brought up the idea of forming a true alumni association for the AT program.  With our ideas combined, the association brainchild was formed. The last day of the conference, Sarah and I happened to share a cab with two other CBU alumni - Chase Paulson and Todd Conger. Sarah and I talked about some shortcomings we saw in terms of connecting the CBU ATP family and realized that Chase and Todd felt the same way.  We felt out of the loop when it came to being invited to CBU ATSO events, fundraising, providing help to struggling students, attending learning opportunities, or connecting to alumni all over the country.  Sarah and I were excited to learn that we weren't the only ones that saw the need for an organization like this and were kicked into gear with inspiration.

 

From there, Sarah and I put together a road map of how to create the vision that we loved to think about. We selected two other individuals with similar aspirations and vision to join us on our journey and formed the Managing Board. A couple of name changes later, we're now asking for your help to create the family we've always known to be; connecting past, present, and future with those that came before us and those that come after.