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UFV searching for lost alumni

The University of the Fraser Valley wants to keep in touch with former students.

Dr. Peter Eppinga was lost, but now he’s been found! Despite the fact that he was featured in publicity stories as one of the top grads at the University of the Fraser Valley in 2006, he and UFV managed to lose touch over the years. That can happen when alumni move away to pursue the next chapter of their lives.

But the university wants to keep in touch with its alumni and found those who have been lost – so much so that UFV is offering a chance to win an iPad 3 to any lost alumni who get back in touch.

Eppinga, who completed his bachelor of kinesiology at UFV in 2006, recently completed medical school at the University of British Columbian, and now he’s taking his master of health science degree in clinical epidemiology at the UBC School of Population and Public Health). He’s also working as a consultant for restructuring of a mobile diabetes clinic and working with tele-health surveys and questionnaires, a process in which doctors assess patients over a television screen via satellite communication.

He’s a lost alumnus no more. In fact, he came back to volunteer at UFV’s convocation ceremonies last spring.

“Our alumni are very important to us,” noted UFV alumni engagement manager Nancy Armitage. “By keeping up with them and their achievements, we can measure the success of our programs. They’re great ambassadors for our university, and help us to forge connections with our communities.”

With that in mind, UFV has embarked on a lost alumni campaign, run through the alumni engagement office.

As of last March, there were almost 28,000 alumni of UFV. Approximately two-thirds of them (64 per cent) are female; slightly more than one-third (36 per cent) are male. And 44 per cent of them are considered “lost.”

“We can contact just over half of our alumni by mail, and 40 per cent by email,” says Armitage. “We’d like to get our contact numbers up to at least 75 per cent.”

To get back in touch with UFV, and register for your chance to win an iPad, go to www.ufv.ca/alumni, and follow the link in the top right corner to the lost alumni page. Deadline is Oct. 31.