By Melanie Conner and LaVarn Gordon, Student and Alumni Affair Liaisons

Founded in 1991, APUS is coming up on its 30-year anniversary. But this year, we are celebrating 29 years of providing excellent service to both our current students and over 100,000 alumni.

To celebrate this major milestone of reaching over 100,000 alumni, despite the current coronavirus pandemic, we thought, “Why not celebrate with our first virtual homecoming?”

Homecoming is a time when alumni return home to their alma mater to celebrate the university’s existence. During this event, we will welcome all graduates from the classes of 1995 (our first graduating class) to 2020. Since our graduates come from all over the world, we’re using technology to bring everyone together.

Register now for our Virtual Homecoming, starting October 19!

Homecoming Details

This event will take place from October 19 to October 23, 2020. You can attend virtually from anywhere.

We’ll be using our alumni social media channels for most of the events. You can follow us on Twitter at @APUSAlumni, on Facebook and in our LinkedIn community.

October 19: School Spirit Day

Share your school spirit on social media by taking a picture of yourself with AMU and APU school colors. Share a photo of yourself wearing some #AMU or #APU swag or school colors, and tag us on Twitter @APUSAlumni or on our Facebook page using #AMU4Life and #APU4Life. We’ll retweet the shared photos, and we’ll select several alums to receive some swag.

October 20: Diploma Day

Celebrate your hard work by showing us a picture of your diploma or a picture of yourself with your diploma on social media. Tag us on Twitter using @APUSAlumni or share to our Facebook page. Highlight your achievement using the hashtag #AMUbravo or #APUbravo. We’ll retweet the shared photos, and we’ll select several alums to receive some swag.

October 21: School Mascot Day

One of our more popular events during Commencement weekend is when our mascots join the celebration at the Grad Fest. This is such a celebratory time, and the mascots love taking pictures with our AMU and APU graduates and their families.

What better way to celebrate School Mascot Day than to share a photo of yourself with Jake, our volunteer mascot, or Valor, our golden eagle mascot. If you don’t have a photo with the mascots, we’d love to see your creativity – draw a picture of yourself with Jake or Valor. Tag us on Twitter using @APUSAlumni or share to our Facebook page. We’ll retweet the shared photos, and we’ll select several alums to receive some swag.

Virtual Volunteer Events to Celebrate Mascot Day

Jake, our APU mascot, wanted to get involved in our first-ever virtual homecoming, and we wanted to celebrate our beloved Jake. Animal lovers can offer help at a local animal shelter.

Since 1981, the American Humane Society has been celebrating Adopt-a-Dog Month, and we wanted to see our alumni be heroes to pets in animal shelters. For this virtual volunteer event, we ask that our alumni contact a local shelter and see what they may need.

If your shelter allows volunteers, we’d love to see you volunteer at your local shelter. Also, you can drop off some items they may need, such as pet food, blankets and towels.

Have you adopted a rescue dog? We’d love to see a photo! Tag us on Twitter using @APUSAlumni or share to our Facebook page. We’ll retweet the shared photos of your rescue pets and your volunteering, and we’ll select several alums to receive some swag.

Valor, our AMU mascot, also wanted to get involved in our first-ever virtual homecoming, and we wanted to celebrate Valor. Our second virtual volunteer event is for our alumni to write a letter or to send a care package to a servicemember.

We want to thank our military members for their dedication and service to America. Help us thank our military members by writing a letter or a post card through our Thanking Those Who Serve Project.

Tag us on Twitter using @APUSAlumni or share to our Facebook page. We’ll retweet the shared photos, and we’ll select several alums to receive swag.

October 22: Class Year Day

Each year, we love celebrating our newest graduates. To celebrate your class year, we’d love for you to share your favorite song, book or movie from when you graduated. We’ll compile a list of responses to share with the alumni community.  Tag us on Twitter using @APUSAlumni or share to our Facebook page. We’ll retweet the shared photos, and we’ll select several alums to receive some swag.

October 23: Virtual Hangout

To culminate our week-long celebration, we have the virtual hangout! The virtual hangout is a great opportunity to engage with the alumni community and to meet the Alumni Affairs team. It’s a fun, relaxed atmosphere where you can find out what’s going on to support and benefit our alumni community, chat with other alumni, and win some AMU/APU swag.

The Alumni Affairs team is always looking for opportunities to connect with our alumni to share all the great things we have for them, as well as give them a voice to express any questions or comments about their experience as alumni. All you have to do is meet us on the platform provided by Zoom on October 23 at 7 pm ET.  We hope you’ll join us for a fun night of activities.

Register now for our Virtual Homecoming, starting October 19!

We hope that you will plan to participate in some or all of the homecoming activities, and this year is just the beginning. As we move into our celebration of 30 years as an institution, we plan to take homecoming to another level. Our alumni have helped us become a shining light in the world of higher education, and what better way to say thank you than by celebrating our alumni community! Get your school spirit ready! It’s almost time for virtual homecoming!