By VCU Department of Alumni Relations
Alumni Volunteer Service Awards
VCU Alumni will recognize, honor and reward alumni for their outstanding accomplishments and service to the alumni organization and to the university this fall at the biennial Alumni Volunteer Service Awards. Join us 5-7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Delta Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, as we celebrate alumni who have worked with particular devotion to serve the VCU community.
VCU Alumni GOLD Award: Andrew Hobson
Andrew “Andy” Hobson (B.S. ’12) has a talent for planning events and programs that connect VCU engineering alumni, students, staff and faculty with members of the larger community.
He expanded the VCU Alumni Engineering Alumni Board’s Third Thursday networking events by partnering with companies such as QuibicaAMF and Anthem and inviting speakers from local industry, VCU and other nearby universities. The talks strike a balance of learning and fun, such as one about reproducing a beer from the Jamestown settlement. He helped to create the College of Engineering’s inaugural Alumni College event, which gave alumni the chance to go back to school for a day and learn about hot topics such as blockchain, a key technology behind the creation and use of cryptocurrencies including BitCoin.
He’s also brought a sense of fun to one-off events. For example, last summer, he organized a cleanup event at the James River at Ancarrow’s Landing in Richmond, Virginia, and closed it out with a celebratory reception with a jazz band at nearby Legend Brewing Co.
As president of the Engineering Alumni Board from 2016-18, Hobson also served on the VCU Alumni board of governors, and he actively supports the VCU College of Engineering as a member of the Engineering Dean’s Society.
Hobson says he was inspired to give back by his experiences with older alumni, who helped jump-start his career in the HVAC industry. He is an officer of the Richmond chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers and helped start a student chapter of the organization at VCU.
“I hope that the progress we made and the events we created while I was president of the Engineering Alumni Board will inspire more students to stay involved after they graduate,” Hobson says.