Lipscomb student sees college involvement as a lifelong commitment
Chris pepple |
Lipscomb senior Ashley Wilhite enjoys her time on campus. As a marketing and management major, she stays busy with a full class schedule and plenty of papers and projects. During a break from her studies, you can catch her chatting with President Lowry about a senior hayride or hanging out with friends in Bison Square. As treasurer for the year, Wilhite makes time for Delta Xi activities, too. Life at Lipscomb is a time for her to strengthen the bonds of friendships with other students, lay a solid academic foundation for future career paths or postgraduate studies and just hang out and have some fun.
But Wilhite also knows the value of off-campus experiences to serve others through Lipscomb’s mission programs or strengthen her marketing and management skills through an internship. Wilhite recently spent three months in Australia as part of both a mission trip and an internship. In recalling how she managed to work this all in together, Wilhite says, “I went on a mission trip with Lipscomb to Brisbane, Australia, for a month. We helped the Point Church there. I knew I wanted to go back this past summer. It’s an awesome place and the people hold a really special place in my heart. But I knew I needed to do an internship, too.”
A contact from her first mission trip helped Wilhite make mission work and an internship both possible in one summer. An elder in the Point Church in Brisbane had served as a host family for Lipscomb’s mission trip. He also worked for Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc., Australia’s largest multi-line property/casualty third-party administrator. He helped Wilhite secure a position as the company’s first intern in the Australian branch. As a sales and marketing intern, Wilhite improved their corporate bulletin from a two-color to a full-color newsletter. She also traveled to the Melbourne office to assist with a special project in that area.
After one month of working with Gallagher Bassett, Wilhite took three weeks off to work with the Lipscomb mission team in Brisbane. The group worked with teenagers from the Redland Bay area and assisted with the children from the Point Church. After the mission team departed, Wilhite stayed in Brisbane to finish her internship. “This was the opportunity of a lifetime!” Wilhite exclaimed.
Wilhite knows the value of the experiences she is receiving both on and off campus through Lipscomb programs. She wants to help make sure that other students can benefit from similar experiences for generations to come. To help make that hope a reality, Wilhite serves as this year’s Student Alumni Association (SAA) president. In this role, she works to bring students and alumni together for community events on and off campus. She also works to make sure that current students understand the value of being active alumni.
“Serving as SAA president is a great way for me to give back to Lipscomb,” Wilhite acknowledges. “One of the things that I think is really important to stress to SAA members and for all of us to stress to others is that your college is a place you should have a tie to for the rest of your life.”
The Lipscomb chapter of SAA began during the 2005-06 school year. The Lipscomb chapter is part of the Association of Student Advancement Programs which is a national organization aligned with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The mission statement of the Lipscomb SAA chapter reads: “Student Alumni Association is a membership organization that creates student awareness for the Lipscomb Alumni Association services and is valued as an organization that can impact the student experience through spiritual encouragement.”
The organization hosts student events throughout the year such as a senior hayride. The group also offers parents an opportunity to send birthday cakes and party packages to students during the year. In addition, the twenty-one SAA members serve as hosts during key events where university alumni and donors will be present. They recently answered questions for visitors during the opening of the Ezell Center and helped returning alumni and campus visitors understand more about campus programs and opportunities. “It’s really fun to interact with the people,” Wilhite states. “Talking to guests and alumni help them have a better understanding of what’s going on at Lipscomb this year.”
Wilhite sees her days at Lipscomb as the beginning of a lifelong commitment to the university she will receive her degree from. “I will leave Lipscomb with a sense of pride for the university I graduate from,” she states. “I want all alumni to keep coming back to campus in the future. I want people to give back not just financially, but also through involvement. Come back to ball games and dinners. Be involved with things going on in the Lipscomb community. We as students and alumni are responsible for helping students come to Lipscomb in the future.”
Ashley Wilhite will walk across the stage at graduation, but she will not be walking away from Lipscomb. She will take with her a wealth of experiences and bring back to the university a gift of lifelong involvement and service. “Once you get your degree,” she states, “that’s not where it ends.”
--Chris Pepple