Are you an alumnus of Owensboro High School, or was it still called Senior High back in your day? Regardless, school officials want to connect the roughly 10,000 alumni from over the years through a new online portal.
The initiative was a product of the strategic plan for Owensboro Public Schools, specifically the goal of connecting alumni with students. OPS Executive Director of Alumni Relations Chris Gaddis said it will do just that.
“The occupations (of alumni) I’ve run across here lately span from one end of the spectrum to the other. So that’s a huge benefit for our kids that may not know what they’re doing in the future,” he said.
Seeing professionals in any given industry can help both the student and that industry, Gaddis said. The hope will be that students will use the connections to learn how to better themselves by taking notes from the alumni.
“We’ve had professional athletes, people on Broadway. It’s all over the place. So it’s really about connecting our past with our present and vice versa,” Gaddis said.
All contact information is opt-in, meaning it can only be shared at the user’s discretion.
One of the biggest features Gaddis is excited about is a map that shows pinned cities of Red Devils alumni throughout the globe.
The site aims to be a cross between LinkedIn and Facebook. It is powered through the Alumni Channel and is a free-to-use website built for OPS.
While Gaddis hopes the portal acts as a connector for students to alumni, he also alumni to be able to connect with one another.
Since users can interact with one another, they can post photos from high school to relive favorite memories with their peers or share current updates about their lives. The site also allows for obituaries to be posted for users to stay up-to-date on classmates who have died.
Gaddis said while many people use Facebook to plan events such as reunions, this website will allow for another easy method of putting together those kinds of celebrations.
“With this, all members from a class can come together without having to search for them,” Gaddis said.
There are estimated to be 10,000 alumni from the school system, according to Gaddis. The oldest class represented on the site currently is 1956, and the system already has more than 400 users. Click here to register or learn more.
