Alumni Profiles
Audrey Beckley
Audrey Beckley
Degree: BS’64, Life Member
Serving IU (at the Corporate Dinner Table)
As the wife of a former IUAA president and CEO, Audrey Hofelich Beckley knows what it means to give back to her alma mater and her Alumni Association.
She spent five years attending countless alumni events, activities, and social engagements with her husband, Ken, BS’62, representing IU and the Alumni Association throughout Indiana and across the United States.
Since Ken retired in 2007, Audrey has stayed closely connected with the Alumni Association.
One very specific way she has given back is by helping future IU alumni improve their social and interpersonal skills.
Over the past five or six years Audrey has been giving etiquette lessons to various groups around the university, often sponsored by the IU Student Alumni Association. These gatherings help prepare students become more adept in social settings — such as how to conduct themselves in formal situations like interview lunches, corporate dinners and banquets, receptions, and other work-related social activities.
Audrey’s etiquette lessons may sound like a throwback to an earlier age but they teach useful skills, especially to those entering corporate environments where first impressions can make a big difference.
“We usually have at least a five-course meal,” Audrey says, “and we talk about what to order when you go out for a luncheon or a dinner with a prospective employer; how to conduct yourself at the meal or at a banquet; what utensils you use; how you place them on your plate when you are done; how you excuse yourself from the table.”
“Once students are told the reasons behind [the rules], it makes sense.”
An IU education provides new graduates with the academic skills necessary to compete in the modern business world. But those who have attended Audrey Beckley’s etiquette classes feel more confident and at ease in those awkward and high-pressure social situations that are increasingly a part of that world.
