Alumnus continues to build up and give back to the Messiah community

“Community doesn’t just happen. You have to deliberately plan for it,” says Messiah College alumnus Ryan Rich ’02, now a law student and an editor of the Law Review at the University of North Carolina. As a politics major and 1999–2000 president of the Student (Government) Association at Messiah, Rich helped to prioritize, plan, and raise funds for the new Larsen Student Union, a product of Messiah’s fundraising campaign, To Serve & To Lead. “Having a central location on campus for student interaction is key” if you want to help build a sense of community and involve students in campus activities, Rich says.

The new student union wasn’t completed until 2004, two years after Rich graduated. But he says he’s glad he could help enhance the college experience for current students, the way others have invested their resources in him. Both in and out of the classroom at Messiah, Rich says he learned “what it means to live in community.” And as a graduate, he continues to put those lessons into practice.

“My wife, Lindsay (Hazen ’02), and I try to send something every time we get a letter from the College, even if it’s only $25,” he says. “Giving back to Messiah is recognizing that there’s something really valuable in the way that Messiah does Christian education.”