News Highlights

New alumni director: Purple-and-gold is 'in her blood'

Jennifer Guyer-­Wood

Third-generation alumni director: Caring attitude is everything.

2009-04-02
By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 3/31/2009]

Jennifer Guyer-­Wood had so much fun when she was a student at Minnesota State University, she couldn’t wait to come back for good. Parties? Keggers?

Not exactly.

Guyer-Wood has a little Maverick pur­ple and gold in her blood — she’s the lat­est in a line of MSU attendees that stretches back to her great grandmother.

She also happened to fall in love with the place as a student. That, combined with her unique work history, make her a good fit for the latest stop in her career path. She is MSU’s director of alumni relations and special events.

“I love it here,” she said.

As a student, Guyer-Wood says she made her connection to her college through her employment. She worked in the campus post office, sorting mail at first and running the place by the time she graduated.

“Working there made me realize how vibrant this place is,” Guyer-Wood said, “and how the employees really cared about the student workers.”

Her decision to attend MSU continued a legacy started years ago. Her father, Spence Wood, started college but put it on hold to join the military and serve in Vietnam. He returned and earned a degree in biology. Her grandmother Ruth Wood was trained as a teacher when that’s all they did at the institution.

And her great grandmother, while not earning a degree, spent a summer taking classes when she was a lass.

She graduated from St. Clair High School, class of ’88. She considered a few schools, but Guyer-Wood was going to be paying her own way through college.

MSU was the best value, and it gave her a chance to leave St. Clair but not be too far from her family.

In 1995 she graduated with a teaching degree — she took a few years off to make money to pay for college. She took some substitute teaching gigs, but she soon realized her days in front of a class­room full of students were numbered.

“I just didn’t have that thing that would make me a great teacher,” she said.

So she decided to go back to MSU for graduate school. This time she chose counseling, and when she was done, she landed a job at the University of St. Thomas. After a few years there she took a job at Anoka Ramsey Technical College, where she worked a lot with helping students obtain Perkins grants.

Finally, in 2002, she came back to Mankato for a job at MSU’s Career Center. And most recently, when the job of alumni relations director became vacant, she filled the job temporarily until being named to the post perma­nently.

So far, says her boss, Doug Mayo, MSU’s vice president for University Advancement, she’s doing a great job.

“No matter what the cir­cumstances, she always has a pleasant way about her and a can-do attitude,” Mayo said.

“She has always exuded what it meant to be proud of where you went to school and how that connection can be important for your whole life.”

She’s been busy. She co­chairs the President’s Commission on the Status of Women and the Homecoming Committee.

She’s also interviewing final­ists for the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards, the visibility and importance of which she hopes to elevate.

One of her biggest goals is to make sure that, by the time people become alumni, they feel the same kind of connection to MSU she felt when she was a student here.

She remembers an event she attended a while back. It was homecoming, and the Johnny Holm Band was play­ing. Nine hundred students attended and the atmosphere was electric.

She remembers thinking that night that she’d like to stay at MSU and build on the increasing sense of pride and spirit she’s sensing among students.

“If students don’t feel con­nected, it’s really difficult to make (students having more pride and spirit) happen,” she said.

Her boss has faith in her.

“I think our getting a chance to hire her,” Mayo said, “is one of the highlights of my professional career.”

“No matter what the circumstances, she always has a pleasant way about her and a can-do attitude. She has always exuded what it meant to be proud of where you went to school and how that connection can be important for your whole life.”

For more Free Press news go to http://www.mankatofreepress.com/
 

Email this article | Permanent link | Topstories news | Topstories news archives