For more than 120 years, the UW Alumni Association (UWAA) has helped keep alumni connected to their alma mater and other alumni networks across the world. The most important way that this mission is carried out is through alumni giving back by becoming members of the UWAA. Membership dues are the lifeblood of the UWAA and help us to continue to build and support the association’s scholarship program, provide valuable career resources for alumni and students alike, plan events that are host around the globe and connect to cowboys and cowgirls everywhere.
UWAA caught up with one of our outstanding UW alumna, Danee Hunzie (B.A. and B.S. ’10 , M.A. ’15), who is a UWAA member and has shared with us how membership in the UWAA has made an impact in her life.
“When I graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2010, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so I moved to my parents’ basement, and two months later I had a job offer. That job offer came from knowing somebody from the university, and I made that connection through the alumni network. [The Alumni Association] allows you to have access to opportunities, it connects [alumni] with other people, and it helps you to continue your pride in this institution that you graduated from.” Hunzie now works for the state of Wyoming through the Wyoming Arts Council. She is a community development and independent music specialist. This job allows her to use the education she received at UW to, as she says, take her biggest passions—which are the state of Wyoming, community development and music—and combine them in a way that is beneficial for the entire state.
She points out that the biggest reason for UW alumni to join the alumni association is that, “When you were a student here, it was one of the best times of your life, and those great opportunities can continue on long after graduation. Whether it was last year, five years ago or 50 years ago, the saying ‘Once a Cowboy, Always a Cowboy’ has never been more true, and joining the alumni association helps you take that to the next level.”