[{"id":18733,"date":"2026-05-27T16:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/?p=18733"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:29:11","slug":"annual-brunch-celebrates-women-and-builds-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/2026\/05\/27\/annual-brunch-celebrates-women-and-builds-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual brunch celebrates women and builds connections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Chelyen Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the first Celebrating the Women of VCU Brunch was held in 2023, organizers hoped it would support an important VCU Alumni engagement goal: Creating more programming open to all with a focus on uplifting and empowering VCU\u2019s women. After all, women represent 60% of VCU\u2019s student body and more than half of its alumni base, according to university data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, it\u2019s clear that the brunch is finding, and serving, its audience. That first year, the event sold out in a week, and drew 75 attendees. This year, it drew 250 people, with 50 more on the waitlist \u2014 a more than 200% increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we thought of this event, it was initially a way to recognize and celebrate women during Women\u2019s History Month,\u201d says Latisha Smart, senior director of alumni career and personal development. \u201cIt has since been a way to not only gather as a community our VCU alumnae, but also pour back into our VCU alumna-owned businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year\u2019s event features a keynote speaker and showcases VCU alumna-owned businesses, often aligned with the event\u2019s theme. This year\u2019s was \u201cIn Full Bloom: Honoring the Women Who Inspire Us.\u201d There are activities, vendors and an offering Smart says is always popular: professional headshots from an alumna-owned business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shows the interest, it shows the pull that women have that want to come together in community,\u201d Smart says. \u201cIt\u2019s always just been our goal to get VCU women and supporters in the room with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the brunch uplifts women, everyone is welcome, Smart says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt originally started with VCU alumnae but it has expanded to the VCU community,\u201d she says. So we get a ton of faculty and staff, we get alumnae of course, we get friends of the university, donors, parents and families of VCU students. So it\u2019s exciting to see how it has expanded and has just been this domino effect across this group of people who are excited each year for this to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maya Rogers Gibson (B.S.\u201919, M.P.A.\u201923) attended the first brunch in 2023 with a sorority sister. She knew right away it was something she\u2019d do again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though it was networking, it was more of that low maintenance type of networking,\u201d says Gibson, who is now employed as financial services manager in VCU\u2019s Office of the Provost  and served as president of the VCU Staff Senate from 2024-2026. \u201cIt was really just a great experience. \u2026 It was such an uplifting experience and such a positive environment, tied to uplifting women and empowering women. I knew for sure I was going to continue to go to these events.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s brunch featured VCU alum Jay Ell Alexander (M.S.\u201910), owner and CEO of Black Girls RUN! a national running organization, as the guest speaker. In a fireside-chat-style conversation with Tomika Ferguson, Ph.D., associate dean of student affairs and community engagement in the VCU School of Education, Alexander spoke about her story and the people who helped her along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Tomika Ferguson, Ph.D. (left), and Jay Ell Alexander (M.S.\u201910)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cShe was vulnerable, authentic, funny and deeply engaging, and people really responded to that,\u201d says Amy Gray Beck, Ph.D. (Ph.D.\u201919), executive director of affinity programs for the VCU Office of Development and Alumni Relations. \u201cThe essence of the brunch is hard to explain if you haven\u2019t experienced it yourself. There\u2019s so much joy, and it feels like no one is a stranger. Our speakers have been honest and open, and attendees have appreciated hearing something authentic and vulnerable when they come. Especially for those who return year after year, there\u2019s an expectation that they\u2019ll walk away with something meaningful and genuine \u2014 and they have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The popularity of the brunch led to the founding of the VCU Women\u2019s Impact Network<\/a>, an affinity engagement and philanthropy group dedicated to creating a network of women leaders. WIN is wrapping up its charter year, with membership starting at $1,000 annually (or $500 for recent grads).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of energy and hunger for women to be together and for us to celebrate women,\u201d says Beck, who led focus groups and a steering committee to identify WIN\u2019s vision and priorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VCU alum and parent Jennifer McDonald (M.P.H.\u2019\u201809) came to the brunch in 2025 because she was looking to build deeper connections. For years, she had focused on building her career and being a parent, but once she became an empty nester, she says, she wanted to \u201cput myself out there and connect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brunch proved the perfect place for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just fell in love. It was an amazing brunch, just to see so many people of diverse backgrounds who are working in so many areas, in health, in the arts,\u201d McDonald says. \u201cIt honestly just energized me. I felt like I really had a place at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the brunch experience, she says, she joined WIN immediately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a great way to meet people, network and talk to women who\u2019ve gone through the stages of life that I have, the stages of personal life, professional life,\u201d McDonald says. \u201cI\u2019d say I’m in the last 10-15 years of my career and I feel like I’m starting to bloom. I can\u2019t stop learning, because that means my mind is going to go dormant. I want to live a very fulfilling and innovative life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it\u2019s in its charter year, Beck says, WIN is already raising significant funds to support WIN\u2019s programming as well as many other areas of VCU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWIN is really special because it brings together people from across so many different areas of VCU in a way that hadn\u2019t really existed before,\u201d Beck says, noting that the network includes male members as well. \u201cIf you care about empowering women, uplifting women, and recognizing and celebrating their impact, there\u2019s a place for you in WIN. WIN is truly for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That empowerment is the impact McDonald wants to see from WIN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want women at the table for many decisions being made. And I want young women to feel empowered that they can be at those tables,\u201d she says. \u201cI want everybody to know WIN as a household name, that we are there to provide any kind of subject matter expertise. Especially the young women, they need to know they\u2019re empowered and they can make their own decisions and contribute \u2026 to any decision around the university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After attending the brunches and other WIN events feeling that she always walked away with good, timely advice for her life and career, Gibson decided this year to join WIN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always step away from one of their events feeling empowered,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cI leave every conversation, every program feeling like I have so much more wealth of knowledge, and I always feel very positive and empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibson graduated from VCU with her undergraduate degree in 2019, and feels like her cohort of classmates didn\u2019t tap into VCU\u2019s alumni network because the COVID pandemic shut down events soon after they graduated. Now, she says, she urges her friends to reconnect as alums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would encourage any individual that wants to still feel connected to the university to join WIN, because that\u2019s exactly what it provides you with. That community that you felt while you were in school,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cThis is that second opportunity for you to continue to be part of VCU and still feel connected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chelyen Davis When the first Celebrating the Women of VCU Brunch was held in 2023, organizers hoped it would support an important VCU Alumni engagement goal: Creating more programming open to all with a focus on uplifting and empowering VCU\u2019s women. After all, women represent 60% of VCU\u2019s student body and more than half […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":18727,"date":"2026-05-06T10:29:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/?p=18727"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:32:15","slug":"vcu-link-explained-ask-vcu-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/enews\/2026\/05\/06\/vcu-link-explained-ask-vcu-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"VCU Link Explained: Ask VCU Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VCU Link is the largest professional networking space that is home to over 10,000 VCU alumni. It”’s your one-stop shop for career exploration and advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VCU Link Explained series walks you through the platform and shows you how you can make the most of this exclusive resource. In this article, you’ll learn about Ask VCU Alumni, a feature that connects students and fellow Rams with alumni who can offer real-world guidance, and how you can be part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Claim your VCU Link account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

What is Ask VCU Alumni?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ask VCU Alumni is a feature inside VCU Link that lets students and alumni post a question to the community and get a response from someone with the right experience to answer it. No cold messages, no awkward outreach. Someone asks a question, the platform identifies the alumni best suited to help, and routes it their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an alum, that someone could be you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

How alumni can show up as a resource<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you have an active profile on VCU Link, the platform can match you with questions from students and fellow alumni based on your background, including your industry, job titles, areas of study and the topics you’ve indicated you can help with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what to expect when a question comes your way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1<\/strong>: You’ll receive an email letting you know someone has a question that matches your experience. If it’s your first time receiving one, you’ll get a heads-up email 24 hours before so you know what to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2:<\/strong> You can respond directly by replying to the email or clicking the link to open a response page on VCU Link. It’s quick and low pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3<\/strong>: Once you respond, a conversation thread opens in your VCU Link inbox so you and the person who asked can keep the exchange going if you’d like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You’ll receive no more than two questions per week. If your availability changes, you can update your preferences at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To manage your preferences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n