Imagine traveling over 8,000 miles to attend a school sight unseen.
That’s exactly what nearly 175 new Michigan Tech undergraduate and graduate students did August 16 and 18, as they flew in from far away destinations such as India, Germany, Mexico, South America, China, and many other countries from around the globe.
Knowing that the flights from Chicago’s O’Hare to Houghton County Airport are notoriously canceled, late, or non-existent at convenient times, the International Program & Services department at Michigan Tech teamed up with the Chicago Alumni Chapter leaders to coordinate what will hopefully become a new tradition!
Over the past several months, the IPS team held conference calls with myself, Marie ’82 and Mike ’82 Cleveland as well as Bruce Hegberg ’84 to strategize on the most convenient and economical way to bus students from O’Hare to a local staging area at the Des Plaines Park District Banquet Center, where two luxury buses were leased to transport the students to Houghton.
This may sound like not such a big ordeal, but the students arrived from O’Hare hourly beginning around noon, until the buses headed off to Houghton at 10 p.m. The banquet center essentially allowed the new students to eat, relax, sleep, and even hear stories from the several alumni that volunteered to assist during the event.
From first-hand experience, this was like no other. It was simply gratifying to meet the students, tell them about the snow, share our stories from years past, where to get the best pizza and other local favorites when in Houghton.
And while the cultural difference was certainly present, the commonality of food brought us all laughter and joy as each student tried Doritos, chocolate chip cookies, and packaged snacks for the first time, while we Americans tried some of the treats from afar including Indian Chakli.
The numerous donations including the cost of the banquet hall, the food, snacks, water, pizza, and similar was outstanding and I can’t thank those enough for pouring their hearts into this welcoming event.
I know that the look on each student’s face when we welcomed them, shaking their hands and trying to capture their names, to the hugs, photos, and goodbyes as they loaded onto the bus later in the evening are probably the only gratitude many of you need.
Still though, on behalf of the Alumni Board of Directors, I’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone that participated in this event. And while there were several other local Chicago alumni that assisted with donations or their time, I’d like to especially thank Marie and Mike Cleveland as well as Bruce Hegberg. It is because of their generous donations that made this all possible.
Until next year!
Bob Wojcik, ’91
President, Alumni Board of Directors
