If there is something that I really enjoy, it is interacting with our ECA alumni. I love hearing what God is doing in and through them, challenges they have faced, ideas they have for ECA, lessons that stand out from what they learned during their school days, and who they are still in contact with. I love listening to stories of what alumni appreciate about ECA and about how they were blessed and/or challenged. I love watching alumni invest back in ECA by speaking in chapels or classes, coaching our current students, networking, giving toward the construction, and sharing ideas. When a graduate refers someone to teach at ECA, I know there has already been an effective filter, and I can count on that person being someone who will fit in well. I love having alumni visit ECA, admire the new construction, reminisce over the “good ole days” and reconnect with the few remaining staff members they remember (Moyers, Sol, Claudia, Rocio, etc.).
ECA began in 1980 and our first graduating class in 1989 had three graduates. Now, 30 graduation ceremonies later, we have 323 graduates and hundreds of other students have spent some of their school years at ECA, forging memories here. Our graduating classes now average 20-22 students with 21 aiming for a 2019 graduation. Though the majority of our graduates live in Colombia or the USA, we have grads studying, working, or serving in Germany, Korea, France, New Zealand, Israel, Canada…among other countries. Spread around the world, ECA alumni are involved in all sorts of jobs and ministries where they are investing their time, talent and resources in churches and businesses, in homes and neighborhoods. Czechoslovakia, Australia, Jordan, Ecuador, Mexico, and New Guinea are some of the countries where graduates are serving in missions. We currently have two graduates working at ECA and two ECA students are children of a graduate.
We are excited to have Daniela Rojas (Class of 2013) serving as our Alumni Coordinator and finding ways to better connect with our alumni and to better serve them. She organized our annual alumni brunch in December, where we had 41 alumni, 13 teachers, and 8 family members or special guests for a total of 62 people. The classes of 2016 and 2018 had the largest representations (9 from each of those classes), and Nathan Moyer from the class of 2002 was our oldest alumni there (followed closely by Sam Killins and Daniel Gutierrez from the class of 2003).
We were challenged by Kathleen VanZandt (who taught most attending the alumni brunch during their MS years) with an inspiring devotional and then by alumni David Izquierdo (2018) and Laura Quiñones (2013) with some of their life experiences. Laura has since left to work with refugees in Greece. What fun to reconnect and “catch up” a bit with the alumni that were able to join us. All alumni are encouraged to mark your calendars for Saturday, December 14, for our next annual Alumni Brunch.
Our dream is to grow in this area of connecting and serving our ECA alumni, and we hope that 2019 will be a year of new ideas and plans for alumni relations. If you have ideas, feel free to contact us at alumni@eca.edu.co .
