Dear CSU Family,
With the summer vacation season over, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have gotten much quieter.
This is the time of year CSU gears up for our October graduation ceremonies.
Since our last graduation ceremony in October 2012, CSU has had more than 6,000 students earn their degrees. We are excited to have more than 500 graduates from all over the world attend this year’s graduation on Oct. 25.
Our guest speaker will be a dear friend to CSU, Dr. Bob Alsop, president of Waldorf College, CSU’s sister school. He is a remarkable leader and communicator who has a sincere love of the college, its staff and students. For those of you participating, I hope you will be inspired and educated by his remarks as I always am.
Each graduation gives me and the CSU staff and faculty the opportunity to see our students and their families face to face. It further drives home why we do what we do and how we have been able to touch and help so many people. I truly love the fact that CSU is different. Our family culture, our high level of personal service, our extremely affordable tuition (with the book grant), and our flexibility make CSU so very unique. But mainly it comes down to taking care of you, our students, in a personal and sincere way that makes us different.
There are so many things happening at CSU as always. We are working hard to improve courses, add programs, increase our services, and launch new and improved technology that will improve your experience at CSU. Soon, you will be seeing significant changes to the enrollment process in the Student Portal.
In addition to focusing on improving CSU, we work to focus a lot on our local community. CSU Community Relations Director Vicki Barnes helped to organize one of our annual charitable events, the Backpack Program, this summer. She reported that $1,708 was raised by CSU staff this year to help local children with back-to-school items such as backpacks. It is exciting to see CSU can change the lives of the kids in our community.
Speaking of back-to-school, I would like to ask you to help spread the word about our sister institution, Waldorf College. We no longer are just an organization that operates a leading online university, but we also own a full traditional campus with fine arts programs such as theater and music to athletics like football, baseball, and even hockey. The Waldorf campus is a great choice for parents who want to ensure a versatile and strong education for their children. Its residential campus is a small, dynamic community with outstanding programs. It is a hands-on experience starting with the freshman year in a small and personal environment. The college offers a host of associate and bachelor’s degree programs in areas such as such business, communications, education, economics, theater, music and wellness. Nestled in Forest City, Iowa, Waldorf features an intimate small- town environment in which students are not another face in a crowd. The website is waldorf.edu.
Back on the CSU front, we will start construction soon on a 10,000 square foot facility that will provide large meeting space and office space. I am very excited to see us expanding the campus. The meeting space will be used by CSU staff and for training events that CSU is hosting such as the Alabama Fire College classes.
Over the next couple of months, the CSU team will be at the following events. If you are in attendance, stop by and say hello.
- Sept. 17-20:
- Carolina Star Safety, Greensboro, N.C.,
- Central Oregon Safety and Health, Redmond, Oregon.
- Iowa Chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators’ Fire Investigation Seminar and Annual Meeting, Ames, Iowa.
- Sept. 18-19: Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference and Expo, Virginia Beach, Va.
- Sept. 21-24: National Tactical Officers Association Tactical Operations Conference and Trade Show, Kansas City, Mo.
- Sept. 22-25: Tampa Bay Job and Career Fair, St. Petersburg, Fla.
- Sept. 29-Oct. 3: National Safety Conference, Chicago.
- Oct. 18-22: International Association of Chiefs of Police, Philadelphia.
- Oct. 20-23: HR Southwest Conference, Dallas.
- Oct. 28-31: Emergency Management and Homeland Security Expo, Reno, Nev.
- Nov. 12-16: Southeastern Mining Safety and Health, Birmingham, Ala.
- Nov. 24-27: Texas EMS, Fort Worth, Texas.
Thank you again for being a part of the CSU family and allowing us to be a part of your life.
God Bless,
Robert
Photo above: Bob Alsop, president of Waldorf College.
Hi,
Thank you Robert for your update. We are very excited about our graduation speaker this year. Dr. Bob Alsop is a great speaker. He will encourage you to move forward and to go for your dreams. To all those graduates who can not attend the graduation will be live stream for you to enjoy. Welcome to all those coming to graduation as well. I look forward to meeting you.
Chantell