{"id":372305,"date":"2026-08-15T14:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/372305\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T14:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:44:31","slug":"usf-st-petersburg-hosts-alumni-academy-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/372305\/","title":{"rendered":"USF St. Petersburg hosts Alumni Academy for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Arielle Stevenson<\/a>, University Communications and Marketing\u00a0<\/p>\n

The crowd at Tropicana Field was already on its feet when Tyler Crawford and other
\n USF alumni appeared on the big screen during the seventh-inning stretch. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Crawford, a 2011 USF St. Petersburg graduate and longtime Rays fan, was surrounded
\n by fellow alumni as the group helped to lead \u201cTake Me Out to the Ballgame\u201d with game
\n host and USF alumnus Nate Kurant during USF Day at the Tampa Bay Rays. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge Rays fan,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cAt the time I was thinking about how great
\n it was that I could attend a game for my favorite baseball team along with my alma
\n mater, which I am very proud to be involved with.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called the moment, \u201cdefinitely the highlight of my summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outing capped off Alumni Academy<\/a> held August 1-2 at USF St. Petersburg, where alumni leaders from across the country
\n came for a weekend of activities centered on strengthening connections to the university.
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sam Fiore, assistant director of alumni engagement at the USF Alumni Association,
\n said the annual gathering gives leaders who sometimes live hundreds or thousands of
\n miles apart a rare chance to come together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the only opportunities we get to bring together all of our alumni
\n group leaders throughout the country, so it\u2019s a really exciting weekend for us,\u201d Fiore
\n said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year also marked the first time Alumni Academy was held on the St. Petersburg
\n campus, a distinction that Fiore said makes the weekend especially meaningful as USF
\n celebrates its 70th anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many of our Alumni volunteer leaders, this was their first time coming to the
\n St. Pete campus,\u201d she said. \u201cIt means a lot to us to highlight such an important part
\n of our campus community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crawford, an attorney in New York with a background in labor and public-interest law,
\n is a volunteer leader with the USF Alumni Association\u2019s New York Chapter<\/a>, where he said about 5,000 USF alumni live.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His trip south was also a return to the campus where he earned his bachelor\u2019s degree
\n in English and history in 2011. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to see what kind of changes have been made to USF,\u201d Crawford said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s programming at Lynn Pippenger Hall<\/a> gave him plenty to take in. Sessions covered fundraising, social media and digital
\n engagement, and building meaningful alumni relationships. Participants also learned
\n about the Veteran Impact Program and visited the development site of the forthcoming
\n Office of Veteran Services building on the St. Petersburg campus.<\/p>\n

\"AlumniThe Alumni Academy awards dinner allowed leaders to celebrate each other’s accomplishments.<\/p>\n

The day ended with a networking happy hour and the Group Excellence Awards dinner
\n at The Edge. \u00a0For Fiore, the awards dinner stood out most. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a room filled with love and Bull pride,\u201d Fiore said. \u201cWith the room cheering
\n and clapping and hyping one another up, you can\u2019t help but feel fired up for all that
\n will be accomplished this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crawford found some of his own highlights in the conversations between scheduled events.
\n \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a lot of great connections, especially to our DC chapter, which is very active,\u201d
\n he said.<\/p>\n

Fiore said organizers build Alumni Academy around those kinds of exchanges. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that our Alumni groups will feel inspired to continue serving their communities,
\n providing experiences to bring alumni and friends of USF closer,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday offered a more relaxed setting, with brunch at The Hangar before attendees
\n headed to Tropicana Field for USF Day. \u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cMy takeaway from the weekend is that I am very proud to be a University of South
\n Florida alumni,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that the university is growing and going in
\n a good direction.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
He also came away impressed by USF’s reach.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cOur alums are doing excellent work throughout the country and leading in their fields,
\n both in public service and in their professions,\u201d Crawford said. \u00a0
\u00a0
For someone who has never attended Alumni Academy, Crawford\u2019s pitch is simple. \u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cThe educational programming and workshops were instructive for those who want to
\n get involved as alumni leaders,\u201d he said, \u201cand the events were uplifting and a blast.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Arielle Stevenson, University Communications and Marketing\u00a0 The crowd at Tropicana Field was already on its feet when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-372305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}