mark dantonio - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University

THE STUDENT ALUMNI
FOUNDATION EMERGES AS
A NATIONAL LEADER
In only two decades, MSU’s Student Alumni Foundation has
emerged as the Big Ten’s largest voluntary student organization
and as a national leader.
By Robert Bao
It hasn’t made banner headlines
(yet), but a dynamic
student group associated with
the MSU Alumni Association
is quietly having a tsunami-like
impact across the MSU campus.
Formed in 1986, the Student
Alumni Foundation has just
surpassed 7,000 members,
making it a larger organization
than several hundred colleges in
the nation. More importantly,
the reach of its programs are
highly visible on campus and
even around the country.
“We’re the largest, voluntary
student organization
in the Big Ten,” says
SAF president Frankie
Orlando, a senior from
Grand Ledge, who joined
the SAF in 2003 when it
VandenBerg
Hamilton
only had 2,000 members. “We
believe we might well be the
biggest in the country as well.”
Indeed, the Association of
Student Advancement Programs,
which is a part of the
Council for the Advancement
and Support of Education, lists
MSU’s SAF as the nation’s largest
student organization with
7,200 members.
Size matters, but that alone
is not what distinguishes the
SAF. Its recent growth has
been explosive, with membership
more than tripling since
2003. But along with numbers
has come great student leadership.
Two signature SAF programs—the
current national
champion Sparty mascot and
the Izzone—have blossomed
into iconic entities that others
in the country emulate as
models.
If imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery, then
Beverly VandenBerg,
assistant director of the
MSU Alumni Association,
should feel very flattered.
She has served as SAF
adviser this past decade
Click Right Through for MSU
www.msualum.com
Photo by Robert Bao
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