The sunny Central Oregon summer\u00a0created a perfect backdrop for a\u00a0round of golf, happy hour and a meet-and-greet event at Eagle Crest. The second annual alumni summer gathering\u00a0coincided with the Classes of\u00a02012-2014 Ford Scholars Leadership\u00a0Conference.<\/p>\n

Twenty Ford Scholar Alumni and\u00a0a few of their family members met up\u00a0at the Eagle Crest Putting Course in\u00a0Redmond, Ore., on Saturday, July 18, to try their swing at golf. They paired\u00a0off into small groups and hit the\u00a0course, reconnecting as they played\u00a0the 18 holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived out of the country\u00a0most of my adult life,\u201d said Class of\u00a01995 alumna Lori Balbi. \u201cI\u2019m excited\u00a0to join the FSAA.\u201d Balbi now lives in Vancouver, Wash., and admitted she\u00a0was disappointed that there were not\u00a0more alumni at the event. Marco Olivera from the Class\u00a0of 2009 came from nearby Madras,\u00a0Ore., to the get-together. Olivera\u2019s\u00a0two younger sisters are also Ford
\nScholars, and he attended the event\u00a0because he wanted to know more\u00a0about the FSAA. He supports the\u00a0community service aspect of the organization. <\/p>\n

After a sunny round on the putting\u00a0course, alumni and their families\u00a0visited over refreshments at the\u00a0Silverleaf Caf\u00e9. Class of 2008 alumnus Thomas\u00a0Kyle-Milward carpooled with a couple\u00a0of other alumni from the Portland\u00a0area to attend his first FSAA event. He recalled how invigorated he always\u00a0felt after the summer conferences as a\u00a0Ford Scholar. \u201cI left feeling recharged\u00a0and ready for another term,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

That evening, alumni hosted\u00a0a meet and greet with current\u00a0Ford Scholars in the Golden Eagle\u00a0Ballroom at Eagle Crest Resort\u00a0Conference Center. Alumni introduced\u00a0themselves and shared their school\u00a0and career history before fanning out\u00a0and connecting with Scholars.<\/p>\n

FSAA President Mary Chuinard\u00a0was pleased with the turnout, noting\u00a0that attendance was double that\u00a0of the first gathering last summer in\u00a0Sunriver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sunny Central Oregon summer\u00a0created a perfect backdrop for a\u00a0round of golf, happy hour and a meet-and-greet event at Eagle Crest. The second annual alumni summer gathering\u00a0coincided with the Classes of\u00a02012-2014 Ford Scholars Leadership\u00a0Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Eagle-Crest.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8g73C-5H","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fordscholaralumni.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}