Published: November 7, 2025
This weekend I attended the annual convention of the University of Liberia Alumni Association in the Americas (ULIBAAA), where I had the privilege of addressing the body about UL’s proposed strategic plan and getting input from this important segment of the UL Family. This highly energetic group of UL alumni, led by ULIBAAA President Dr. Fatima Greaves-Kwekwe and her able executive team plus ULIBAAA’s hard-working Board of Directors, were very enthusiastic about the plan’s bold proposals and futuristic orientation. Many good suggestions were made by individual alumni, all of whom care deeply about their alma mater.
Towards the end, one alumna, Mrs. Betty Clinton, stood up and asked, “What can we do to help? How can the alumni support the realization of this plan?” From that point forward, discussion revolved around ways that ULIBAAA had already supported UL in the past and ways it might like to do so in the future. The suggestions were concrete, not just “pie in the sky.” In fact, ULIBAAA had just raised $40,000 cash (not pledges) the night before during its fundraiser as a demonstration of both its capability and the organization’s commitment to UL.
Last year, ULIBAAA provided solar lamps to illuminate the isolated Pre-clinical Health Sciences Campus at Fendall, which were installed and handed over this March. This year, they purchased 1,000 chairs for UL to help mitigate the infamous “chairs crisis.” For many years, they have held in escrow $104,000 raised to support the future construction – “when the time is right” – of a multipurpose performing arts center at UL. So, this is a group who is serious about “giving back.” I couldn’t have been more proud, grateful, and impressed to witness these alumni in action!
This morning, as my husband Seboe Maparyan and I were preparing to leave the conference and drive back to Massachusetts from Maryland, we were sharing reflections on the conference. He made a remark that really stuck with me. “In life, success is really about ‘How can I help?’ and not ‘What can I gain?’” He mentioned a book he had read, Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, as well as a well-known Bible verse in which Jesus is quoted as saying “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). I was also reminded of Shoghi Effendi’s guidance from the Bahá’í Faith which says, “To be continually giving out for the good of our fellows undeterred by fear of poverty and reliant on the unfailing bounty of the Source of all wealth and all good—this is the secret of right living.” Many great spiritual thinkers confirm that giving creates a vacuum that the Universe fills with new abundance, and my experience is that this is truth.
Towards the end of the business meeting, the eldest participant of the business meeting, the distinguished 79-year-old alumnus, Dr. Edwin Kaliku, who began his studies at UL in 1968, stood up to make a rousing speech encouraging alumni to dig deeper on behalf of their alma mater. He said, “LU put food on the table for each one of us.” He then proceeded to encourage each member of ULIBAAA to donate $1,000 per year – “that’s $100 per month from January to the October convention,” he noted – to help support the realization of UL’s strategic plan, and he announced his plan to rally the UL Alumni Association in Nigeria, of which he is also an active member. “We can do it,” he said convincingly. Whether it is time, treasure, or talent, he noted that everyone, whether in the diaspora or back home in Liberia, has something to give that will benefit UL. As the presiding elder, he really had the last word!
Alumni engagement is pivotal to the success of any higher ed institution. UL’s alumni are passionate and generous. While there may be 30,000 students at UL right now, there are thousands more UL alumni in Liberia, the Americas, Nigeria, and around the world, all of whom are part of the UL Family. UL Nation is powerful and prosperous but must come together and show its real strength. ULIBAAA showed what is possible when alumni organize, mobilize, and ask themselves the question, “How can we help?”
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