Title: Vice President

Company: One Smooth Stone

What it means?: One Smooth Stone is an event marketing and communications firm. Among the many things we do, we produce business theater events (national sales meetings, product launches, leadership summits) – any event where people gather and the event host (our client) desires to make an intellectual, emotional and action-oriented connection with and among the participants.

Through my participation on the NAA Board of Directors, and through an invitation to participate from the NAA.

I vividly remember how eager I was to develop a perspective of "life after NU" while I was a student. At that time, we had limited resources to do so – we were left to our own devices to make connections with working professionals who had made the transition from NU to the professional world. Opportunities were limited to internships, for which the competition was great and the time commitment extensive.

The NEXT program is exactly what I had been looking for as a student – an opportunity to connect with the "outside world" and "connect the dots" between life as a student at NU and the path to being a professional and contributor to society who utilizes their Northwestern experience. How could I NOT serve as a host?

It’s what students want, it’s what students need...and, quite frankly, it’s what Northwestern and the alumni community need. We need and desire stronger connection with our students – and we have the privilege of making their connection beyond life at NU more enjoyable and productive than it was for us.

All I was hoping to gain from my experience as a NEXT host was the knowledge that I had helped a student and the opportunity to reconnect to the student community – hearing about life as a student today at Northwestern, comparing it to my student experience, and sharing this experience with my NEXT student participant.