Volunteer Spotlight: Manpreet Bhogal (B.S.’13)
Welcome to a series of Q&As through the month of April that spotlight just a few of VCU’s most dedicated and committed alumni volunteers to celebrate National Volunteer Month. If you missed it, the series kicked off last week with VCU Alumni Council President Andrea Hart (B.A.’12). This week, enjoy getting to know more about Manpreet Bhogal (B.S.’13), who is vice president for the VCU Alumni Recent Graduate Council and an active member of the DMV regional alumni chapter.
Please share with us what you’ve been doing since graduating from VCU.
After VCU, I attended Rutgers in New Jersey and completed my master’s in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management. I worked as an appointed public official (at a city hall in N.J.) and came back to northern Virginia. Currently I work as a program manager/deputy director with a nonprofit.
Tell us about your involvement with the DMV alumni chapter.
I connected with the chapter in 2024. I’ve been going to events, and sometimes I join the planning meetings. I help somewhat with the planning, but I mostly do my volunteer work through the Recent Graduate Council. I’m the vice president for that council. We plan events, we do a lot of networking. I just work to get alumni connected and get students connected with opportunities to stay connected to the university.
Why is that connection important?
It helps you feel human. It helps you feel like you’re a part of something larger, and college wasn’t just a vague memory. It makes you feel like it’s something for life. You can give back to the university that gave you such a good education. It’s an opportunity to make new friends. It’s time to be open and continue to make new friends. That doesn’t just stop as you age.
You also volunteer with the Recent Graduate Council. Tell us about why you are interested in helping recent grads.
Right now, the nonprofit I work for, we work with seniors, but I have particularly always had an interest in working with young people, ages 16-24. It’s important to have a good solid ground and foundation for where you might want to take your life, and what direction you might want to go in.
Do you do other volunteer work?
This is the primary focus, but some other volunteer work I do is in my building. I live in a condo community, and we have a board of directors. They also do events and programs and sometimes I’ll help them with neighborhood watch and also with planning events and offering my expertise.
Tell us a little bit about your time at VCU.
VCU was a great time for me. I was actually a transfer student; I transferred in sophomore year. It was the best decision I have made. I felt really incorporated as a community. VCU recognized my needs and my wants for what I wanted out of a university.
I was part of a dance club, Muevelo; I worked on campus (as an office assistant, VCU Carver partnership and at the Cary Street Gym, helping with community outreach and memberships. I also was a resident assistant for two years. I really enjoyed my time at VCU. I took advantage of all the resources VCU had, like the gym, mental health services, just anything that was available to me as a student; it really shaped what I wanted out of life. Just doing psychology, it was a tough major, but I think I got a really good education out of it. It set me up well for grad school, and I graduated with honors in grad school because of it.
How should other alumni get involved?
Start off the fun way by connecting with your local alumni chapter (or other groups) and going to local events. Just have fun with it, just really enjoy the time that you have. I know college was a while ago, but it doesn’t end, the fun doesn’t stop. I would start off just by joining a local chapter and going from there.
What have I not asked that you’d like us to know?
We should all use our resources to continue to be a Ramily. We’re all at different stages in our lives. We can be of benefit to each other.
Either way, there’s always a need, and we continue to need each other. Just because college ended, and we had all these resources available to us … and we should continue to use our resources to lean on one another and work with one another, and just be a better Ramily. I think a strong alumni network is attractive to students. They want to know where the next step is and what happens after graduation. It can be an unending abyss out there for some people, and it’s scary. I just want them to know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and there’s so much we can do together.