Column
2009 Annual Donor Report
visit our alumni website at www.sienaheights.edu
from the alumni office
This year’s Homecoming—which brought
almost 5,000 (!) people to the Heights on a
spectacular fall day—provided more than the
usual number of person-to-person reunions. Of
course, there were lots more people here whom
I would have liked to see and never did; but with
5,000 on campus, you don’t run into everyone.
Sometimes, though, I run into alumni in completely unexpected circumstances.
Homecoming Connections—
and an Unexpected Visit with
a Champion Saint
I love meeting alumni for the first time, and
reconnecting with them again and again. That’s
the best part of Homecoming.
Some people register for the weekend long in
advance, and I’m watching for them—waiting
to meet a 50-year reunion alumna returning to
campus for the first time in decades, or looking
for a past Alumni Board member or Alumni
Award winner I haven’t seen in awhile.
Others never register; they just come, deciding
at the last minute to take a chance on Homecoming. Running into those alumni is a delightful surprise. Sometimes they are people whose
names I’ve known for years, whom I’ve emailed,
written or called but never seen face to face.
Suddenly, there’s a face and a smile to go with
the name. I love that.
20
Reflections Winter ’12
That happened one day this past summer at, of
all places, the Detroit Gun Club. An old friend,
passing through with bird dog puppies for sale,
took me along on a visit to the club to reconnect with his old friend, a fellow skeet shooter,
multi-year world champion, and National Skeet
Shooting Association Hall of Famer. This friend,
“one of the best women shooters ever,” was a
gracious, attractive woman in her 80s who could
talk target averages and barrel gauges and the
differences between Olympic and American
skeet with the best of them.
Imagine my surprise when she said, upon
learning I worked at Siena Heights University,
“Oh, that’s my school!”
Ila Hill of Birmingham (above right) , a nurse
anesthetist, took up target shooting when she
was 40, because she was bored and didn’t like
golf or bridge. It turned out, she was a natural.
It was 1969 and she rocketed to the top of the
sport. Ila dominated women’s shooting throughout the ‘70s, nationally and internationally,
and was named to the U.S. shooting team for
nine years from 1973 through 1981. Her list of
honors and awards, in every gauge from 12 to
.410, goes on for pages.
When Ila stopped shooting competitively in
the 1980s, she turned her attention to her career—and went looking for a college where she
could build on her associate degree and nursing
experience. Enter Siena Heights in Southfield.
Ila earned her B.A.S. in Allied Health in 1987.
We shared a great lunch at the Detroit Gun
Club that day. Meeting Ila was a reminder that
there are champions of many stripes among our
Saints alumni. And you never know where or
when you might cross paths.
I hope your path leads back to the Heights
before long. And here’s a tip: Wear a Siena
Heights shirt on the journey; you never know
who you might meet!
Jennifer A. Hamlin Church
Associate VP for Advancement &
Director of Alumni Relations
(517) 264-7143
[email protected]