Like any University, Midwestern works hard to be a strong and active presence in our local community. Since we are solely focused on graduate health care programs, MWU is a bit more obscure and mysterious to most residents compared to a typical undergraduate school or community college. However, over the past several years we have worked hard to become more actively involved in the community. Our best ambassadors, of course, are our students.

Last Thursday, we hosted the "Chamber After Hours" event at our campus in Downers Grove. I serve on the Board of the Downers Grove Chamber, so we were pleased to be able to welcome this group of business leaders. About 50 members of the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce attended the reception in our Hyde Atrium of Alumni Hall. I had the pleasure of greeting the guests and mingling with them during the event.





After I spoke, several guests came up to talk to me about opportunities for our students to volunteer at their places of business. Representatives of a nursing home and a women's shelter were especially interested in ways to connect our students with their clients. Our students are very active in service projects, so this event was successful in identifying more partnership opportunities for our academic programs. People are always very impressed with our campus and are surprised by how much land we own and how many buildings we have. Some local residents only drive by the front of our campus and never realize that we have 105 beautiful acres.

All in all, the event was very successful for both the Chamber and the University. Special thanks to our campus photographer, Susan Hershberg, for sharing the photos with me.