Lion’s Tale: T-shirt Campaign is Going Strong

The t-shirt campaign highlighted in our June issue has prompted discussions to gauge the feasibility of starting an Alumni Ambassador group. Find out more.

Words by TCNJ's editorial staff

In June, we reported the results of a survey which showed that, while alumni recognize how special their alma mater is, the general public doesn’t yet fully understand how outstanding TCNJ and its graduates are. Aware of the importance of word-of-mouth advertising, we asked alumni to get out and brag about their alma mater to anyone who would listen. To get you started, we offered two free t-shirts—one to keep, one to give a friend—that featured several third-party endorsements of the College. Close to 1,000 of you responded to the call, including Justin Stopa ’05, pictured here wearing his t-shirt in Honolulu, HI. Stopa, who is working toward a PhD in ocean resources and engineering at the University of Hawaii–Manoa, spends much of his time hitting the books, but said he still finds time to tell his Aloha State neighbors how much he values his TCNJ degree.

The response to the t-shirt campaign was so great, in fact, that discussions are underway to gauge the feasibility of starting an “Alumni Ambassador” group, Jason Jacobs, a counselor in TCNJ’s admissions office, said. Jacobs explained that many of the top undergraduate colleges have such programs, wherein alumni represent their alma mater at college recruiting events. Although the details of how TCNJ’s program might work are still being discussed, Jacobs envisioned that alumni who requested t-shirts would likely be the first to hear about such a program.