Alumni Profiles
Lori L. Matthews
Lori L. Matthews
Degree: BA’92, MA’98, Member
Staying in Touch with Technology
Ask Lori Matthews about how technology has changed the way we communicate in the past 20 years and she waxes lyrical.
“Finding ways to keep people together [through] technology is important, and it’s great that the Alumni Association recognizes that is the world that we live in,” she says.
A board member of the IU Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Bisexual Alumni Association, Lori recognizes the crucial role played by the Internet and social media such as Facebook and Twitter in connecting alumni.
“One of the ways we stay in touch with GLBT alumni is through our [electronic] newsletter,” she says. “And having a Facebook page has really helped, especially with a younger, more tech-savvy population looking for ways [of connecting] on a daily basis.”
When Lori received her undergraduate degree from IU, e-mail was just a newfangled way of corresponding without pen and paper.
“After graduation, it was difficult to keep up with friends who were going back to their home states,” she explains. “Today’s experience is so different. With all the social media, texting, [smart] phones, and everything else, the world is much smaller. It’s so much easier to keep those connections [alive] and not let them go for five or 10 years, like some of us did because we just fell out of contact.”
Lori is particularly pleased that the Alumni Association is making full use of the plethora of communications technologies available to help alumni stay in touch.
“My experience in the last two years has led me to believe that the Alumni Association is all about the opportunities to make connections [in] meaningful ways,” she says. “[It] gives us the ability to find an old classmate or professor in the alumni directory, to connect us to social events like Homecoming, to meet new people and make new friends, or to [link us to] career services and networking.”
“The IUAA is the bridge to the past and to the future as well.”
