The Cowboy Engineers of DFW alumni group do things a bit different
Monday, January 10, 2022
Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Manager, CEAT Marketing and Communications | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu
Bigger is better. A group of College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology alumni in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is hoping to start a big movement across the country.
On the heels of Oklahoma State University’s Branding Success campaign, Stan Woodward, who graduated from OSU in 1984 with a degree in electrical engineering, and former CEO at MVPindex, sought out groups in the DFW area who were discussing CEAT and the happenings on campus and began building a group with a BIG end goal.
“We want DFW to be the largest OSU CEAT alumni group in the country,” Woodward said.
Since its inception, the Cowboy Engineers of DFW alumni group has always focused on finding alumni and providing them with the opportunity to join a group that could provide an organized, passionate membership dedicated to championing CEAT.
“Our chapter is like any other alumni chapter,” said Woodward, a DFW group board member. “We bring people together to share experiences about where they started, where they’ve been and where they ended up and what their journey looked like.”
The earliest and perhaps largest obstacle was simply finding the alumni and getting in contact with them. Woodward first reached out to the Alumni Association to develop a partnership that would provide the alumni group the contact information available to the Alumni Association.
However, that wasn’t the group’s only means of building a membership base. Woodward and other members of the board dedicated countless hours to scouring social media pages for CEAT alumni in the DFW area, and provided links for numerous other potential members.
Moving forward, the board knew that communication was going to be key as their membership numbers began to grow.
“I knew we needed organized, strategic messaging,” Woodward said. “Something that would be cohesive, cut through all the clutter and provide the group messaging opportunities that wouldn’t require multiple interactions to be impactful.”
The board knew that they needed to differentiate their message, so as not to be seen as a “fundraising campaign.” The goal was to be an alumni-to-alumni network, not something directly connected to CEAT.
Fairly soon after the founding members began reaching out to other alumni, the group reached 40-50 members, and is now at nearly 100 members and growing.
“We experienced some very early success,” Woodward said. “And we’ve been able to build upon that success and continue to strive toward our goal of being the largest CEAT alumni group in the country.”
The group holds meetings and social gatherings geared toward camaraderie and networking, however the second largest contributor to the group’s success has been its concerted effort to involve people still directly connected to CEAT.
The group has had CEAT Dean Paul Tikalsky attend gatherings to give updates on the state of CEAT and the continued growth of the college oncampus. The group has also had the opportunity to involve key members of each school within CEAT in their gatherings as another means of updating its members, but also to provide a direct connection between the group and Stillwater.
The final goal of the group began organically through numerous conversations, but has proven to be one of the biggest sources of excitement among its members. The group has begun reaching out to other members and counterparts on campus to see how they can give back. The desire has blossomed into a network of mentors looking to connect with current and potential future students in order to share their career and life experiences, as well as provide a source of enthusiasm for engineering, architecture and technology careers.
“We enjoy connecting with students and sharing with them the possibilities that come with an education from CEAT and choosing a career in STEAM,” Woodward said.
The group has also recently begun efforts to provide a scholarship for students from the DFW area. This provides another opportunity for the group to connect with students and provide the next generation with opportunities to pursue their education in CEAT and continue to bolster the number of engineers for the next generation.
The group in DFW has experienced unprecedented success and has become a model for alumni groups in other cities.
All it takes is a group of passionate individuals dedicated to providing an organized community for other CEAT alumni, along with an eagerness to be connected and involved in CEAT happenings in Stillwater and a desire to share their experiences with other alumni and the next generation of engineers.
Story by: Jeff Hopper | IMPACT Magazine