In the Alumni Office, we love seeing the demon deacon children of alumni! (Or pictures of alumni when they were little deacons themselves.)

And we figured we weren’t the only ones. Each week, we will be featuring “darling deacons” here on Alumni, So Dear. It’s a chance for alumni parents to share with the Wake Forest community pictures of their children in all of their Black & Gold gear. We’re happy for alumni to take a walk down memory lane and send in any childhood Wake Forest photos of themselves, too.

This week’s Darling Deacon is two-week-old Wesley Michael Wheeler, son of Gary (’04) and Ashley (Phillips) (’03) Wheeler. He was born on April 15, 2013 at 10:44 pm, weighing 7 lbs 10.5 oz and 21 inches long. Ashley wrote in an email that he’s “a future Deacon baller!”

We are excited to share another darling deacon next week.

Would you like to be considered for darling deacon of the week? Email your photo and the names of those pictured, your name and class year, and any other related information to . Photos should incorporate Wake Forest in some way for publication.

Guest post by David Holden (’99)

Friday, April 19 – Saturday, April 20, the Alumni Council gathered for their Spring meeting. David Holden shares his thoughts on the meeting with his college friends, and has allowed us to make them available to the greater Wake Forest community. Enjoy!

Hello Friends,

I recently attended the Alumni Council meeting at Wake and thought you might be interested in a few highlights from the meeting:

1. Online learning. Despite the trend towards online courses, Wake continues to believe there will always be a place for the residential college experience. The aim is to become the premier face-to-face college experience and to make sure we give our students skills that employers value. Even with the tough job market young people face today, 95% of our May 2012 graduates were employed or in graduate school after 6 months. More information is on the Office of Personal & Career Development website.

2. Student-athlete initiative. There is a new program at Wake currently in the experimental phase. It is designed to put student-athletes and regular students together in a summer program to enhance their relationships with each other.

3. Buying the Joel. Wake is in negotiations to purchase the Joel from the City of Winston-Salem and hopes to close July 1. We need to make the place ours and take it over for a better home court advantage. Anyone against more basketball wins?

4. Popular majors. The three most popular majors within Wake Forest College are: (1) Political Science, (2) Communications, (3) Psychology. For minors it is: (1) Entrepreneurship, (2) Spanish, (3) Psychology.

5. Admissions. Interesting facts regarding enrollment: School we most often lose students to is UNC-Chapel Hill, due to cost. School we most often win students from is the University of Richmond, due to our higher ranking. Schools we are most 50/50 with are Emory and Vanderbilt.

6. Alumni Giving. There has been a two-year downward trend in number of alumni that contribute financially to the school. This has hurt our US News and World Report rankings. If you have not made a gift for the current fiscal year ending June 30th, please consider at least a $25 gift: http://giving.wfu.edu/.

7. Construction. The new Business School (Farrell Hall), the new dining hall, and the two, new huge dorms should be complete and open this fall. All freshmen now live on South Campus. These new dorms are on North Campus. With the new three-year residency requirement, this equates to 480 more junior students living on campus.

8. Enrollment numbers. There are no current plans to increase enrollment above 4,800. It has steadily increased over the years and is currently slightly under 4,800.

9. Mini-MOOC for Wake Foresters. The Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake offered a lifelong-learning online class for the Wake Forest community called ZSRx: The Cure for the Common Web. It is basically internet user education for everyone and was a huge success. 713 registrants have completed some or all of the four-week course so far. What’s nice is that you can complete as much or as little of the courses as you like. Be on the lookout for two new courses related to Genealogy and Healthy Living.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Go Deacs!

Wake Foresters, Wait Chapel, and a glass of the finest. 35 Wake Forest alumni in Charlotte recently attended a Wine & Design class. A professional artist painted a picture of Wait Chapel in front of the group while everyone followed along, creating their own unique Wait Chapel painting to take home. The artist joked that the Wake Forest alumni class was full of “type A” perfectionists – everyone laughed in agreement! It was a wonderful evening of painting, snacks, wine, and new friendships. The event was such a hit, the Charlotte alumni group is hoping to do it again next year with a different campus scene.

– Colleen Maciag (’09)

About 300 alumni and current students gathered on Saturday, April 13, 2013 at the original Wake Forest campus in Wake Forest, NC for a day of tradition and fellowship. Alumni who attended in Wake Forest, NC revisit their campus and connect with old friends, while current students learn more about the history of Wake Forest. The day is hosted by the Wake Forest Historical Museum, the Alumni Office, the Half-Century Club, the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society and the WFU Traditions Council.

Programming included a discussion with Provost Emeritus Edwin G. Wilson (’43) and Provost Rogan Kersh (’86) titled “Wake Forest: Then, Now & Tomorrow,” the dedication of the new Dr. George C. Mackie and Kathleen R. Mackie Lake Exhibit Gallery, and a presentation by author Dr. George W. Braswell, Jr. (’58) detailing his new book on religion and revolution. The day ended with a lively trio of speeches about sports on the Old Campus from Jack Murdock (’57), Marietta Perry Dormire (’56) and Gray Boyette (’56).

View the Flickr slideshow below:

We are pleased to announce the 2013-2014 Alumni Council Innovation Fund winners! The Innovation Fund is designed to support creative club programming that increases alumni participation.

The Innovation Fund Selection Committee has chosen to fund proposals from the alumni clubs in Chicago and Boston.

The Chicago club was awarded funding for Discussions with Deacs: Lessons in Pursuing Your Passions, a series of conversations with notable Chicago Demon Deacons. The speakers will share lessons learned since graduation and offer insight into their career success.

The Boston club was awarded funding for Wake Forest Alumni in Medical Professions, an event that will facilitate focused networking in the healthcare sector, similar to the Wake on Wall Street (WOW) networking group that concentrates on the financial industry.

There were a number of innovative submissions this year, and we look forward to supporting more club programming in the future. If you are interested in receiving feedback with regard to your club’s proposal, .

Alumni from all over the country gathered via WebEx to listen to Louise Finley (’05) share her expertise as a career counselor.

Webinar description: Whether you’re just starting out or considering making a change, learn how personality and values affect job satisfaction. Understanding how these qualities impact you in the workplace will help you find more meaningful work and make smarter career decisions.

Couldn’t attend live?

Click here to watch
the recording.

Click here
to review the slides.

Louise Finley (’05) is a career counselor at Jordan Stones Center for Counseling in Roswell, GA. Louise worked in Human Resources after graduating from Wake Forest. During this time she became passionate about helping others and decided to pursue a career in counseling. She graduated with a Master’s in Professional Counseling from Richmont Graduate University in 2011. Now Lousie provides counseling in job search and career, depression, anxiety, bi-polar, pre-marital preparedness, and marital relationships. She volunteers at Peachford Hospital and Johnson Ferry Baptist Church’s Crossroads Ministry. Louise desires to help individuals find meaningful, healthy work placements and achieve balance in all areas of life.