Dear Students and Alumni,
Christmas and the New Year are quickly approaching. I hope you are able to find time to enjoy with family and friends. I am very thankful to have my son home from college for the Christmas break, along with my nephew and niece.
For our students and alumni serving in the military and away from home this Christmas and New Year’s, please know that we are thinking about you and appreciate your service and sacrifice.
It is hard to bel
ieve that another year is coming to an end. We have many successes to celebrate from 2016 and I have no doubt that 2017 will be even better! Some of my favorite CSU memories from this year include watching more than 650 of you walk across the stage at commencement,
meeting you at several of our student and alumni socials held across the country, 
and reaching 3000 learning partnerships, which is a relationship we build with companies and organizations to extend a tuition discount to all employees, spouses and children.
Earlier this month, members of our Corporate Outreach and Student and Alumni Engagement teams spent a week in Southern California visiting many of our learning partners, students and alumni. Team members covered the areas surrounding Los Angeles, Ontario and Anaheim.
It is always so rewarding to hear the stories of CSU students and supporters from our “road warriors” and I am grateful that the CSU family continues to grow and cover new territory.
Lastly, I am proud of the w
ork CSU does to support the community. We recently hosted a 5k run to support the local USO and we raised $8,350 for Relay for Life this year. Our students will always be our number one priority, but our community is also very important to us.
While I am proud of all we have accomplished this year, nothing we do and achieve will ever be more important than continuing to ensure our students have a positive and successful experience. We are honored that you have given us the opportunity to make a difference in your lives. That is the greatest gift we could ever receive.
As we head into Christmas, I would like to leave you with one last thought. As I get older and reflect on the experiences of my life so far, I have learned how important it is to live in the moment. I am still very much a work in progress as I learn how to put this into daily practice. In the moment is truly where life happens; everything else is either in the past or in the future. When we are in too much of a hurry, those moments get passed up and life is not fully lived. I hope you are able to enjoy the moments before Christmas, on Christmas Day and each day after.
Thank you for choosing CSU and being a part of this family.
Merry Christmas and God bless,
Robert Mayes
