William Carey University graduates are invited to attend an alumni rally in Slidell on Thursday, Oct. 27. The “Celebrate Carey” rally will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Blanc and Brick, 2144 1st St.

Guests can grab some supper, swap stories, win door prizes, enjoy jazzy vocals by 2012 WCU alumna Melissa McNeal – and meet William Carey’s new president, Dr. Ben Burnett.

A lifelong educator, Burnett served two terms as superintendent of Lamar County School District. He retired from public education in 2014 and accepted a position as dean of the WCU School of Education. Burnett served as WCU’s executive vice president from April 2020 until Aug. 16 of this year, when he became president of the university.

“One of my first initiatives as president of William Carey University is to engage our alumni about what’s going on at their alma mater,” Burnett said.

“Carey has experienced phenomenal growth over the last decade. We’re now the largest medical school in the state, we have more than 5,000 students, and we just announced new academic scholarships that will mean an average 40 percent increase in award amounts for freshmen, transfer, international and ministry students. We want our alumni to be excited about what’s going on at Carey because they’re our best recruiters.”

The Slidell rally is one of a series of alumni events scheduled this fall.

“Last year, our goal was to contact as many of our 30,000 alumni as we could. The result was a new alumni directory,” said Pam Shearer, WCU’s director of alumni relations.

“This year, we’re using what we learned to reach out to our alumni where they live. More than 4,000 of them live within a 40-mile radius of Slidell. These alumni rallies are like a reverse homecoming. We are bringing Carey to your hometown. We hope to see many of you as we mobilize our alumni army to spread the good news about William Carey University – and we want to see you at Homecoming 2023, too.”

Homecoming will be April 14-15 at WCU’s Hattiesburg campus.

“Our alumni association is going to be reaching out to alumni. We want to know their vision for the future of Carey. If you haven’t interacted with Carey lately, if you haven’t been on campus, you need to come home,” Burnett said.

To learn more about William Carey University, visit www.wmcarey.edu.