I found mentors at Elon. Now a twenty-something editor in NYC, I wish I had as many advisers to turn to for guidance as I did during my tenure as a phoenix. That's the reason I take a trip down I-95 every year and re-connect with those directors. Look for me early April!

There is a tremendous bond between student and school. That bond was ever present in the late forties and early fifties. However, what is available today has transformed this university to the top of the list. The beautiful landscape and the placement of different buildings in an artfull way makes this campus like home. We had no idea how this campus would grow when we were there with only one campus behind the brick walls and around Alamance Hall. The only building outside of the walls were the new gym and the power plant. However, foresight is evident when you see us now with three campuses. I met my sweetheart here and proposed under Senior Oak...a tradition for years. In spite of the bleak financial picture in our country presently, we elonites can still bring this school to the peak of outstanding achievement. We have the vision, we have the faculty, we have an outstanding President and we have alumni that cares. Elon is deep in my heart and soul and am proud to help with a memorial scholarship that is growing in memory of my college sweetheart Martha Louise Veazey Vance class of '50.

Elon was the foundation for everything that came next: naval officer, law school, career in the FBI and now as a small businessman. I owe a debt of gratitude to Elon for providing me, at an affordable cost, an education, memorable college experience and many friends for life. It is through some of the people and professors I met at Elon that my life over the years could become the free ticket to a show that it has been. I hope to pay back these people by paying that debt forward to the college.