Alumni
Alumni News

Friday, January 08, 2021
Recent Oakland University graduate Shreyas Gavit was part of an innovative team that won the Salesforce Career Journey with Deloitte, a case study competition in which college students were tasked with helping a fictional online retailer meet recruiting and hiring challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020
FALL EVENT HIGHLIGHTS:Our fall performance season kicked off with Mark Stone’s annual Peace Day concert on Sept. 20. The event happened live in the Varner Hall Courtyard and was livestreamed on the SMTD Facebook page. Professor Stone was interviewed by Civic Center TV, during which he discussed the return to campus and the Peace Day concert.

Friday, September 18, 2020
Annie Fuelle, an alumna of Oakland University’s Honors College, has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Honors College Humanitarian Award, which was established to recognize students who have demonstrated “sustained humanitarian involvement” during their time at OU.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Oakland University's Department of Theatre hosted “A Candlelight Vigil to Honor the Lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Countless Others” on June 7 at The Elliott Tower at Oakland University. About 100 people attended the vigil, which was featured in an article in The Detroit News. “The diversity of our department is our greatest strength,” said professor Anthony Guest, chair of the Department of Theatre. “Something like this (event) is important. We are storytellers, and if we are not telling stories that represent all of humanity, then we are not doing our job.”

Wednesday, August 26, 2020
When the lights went dark in theatres across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakland University Assistant Professor and Tony Award nominee Josh Young reached out to some of Broadway’s top talent and helped them connect virtually with OU’s musical theatre students as part of an innovative Summer Masterclass Series.

Thursday, July 23, 2020
In response to the shortage of COVID-19 testing in the United States, Oakland University alumni Evan Tsang and his business partner, Erik Bogaard, have formed Task Force Lab (TFL), a California-based company that provides on-site testing to group living facilities and businesses.

Thursday, May 21, 2020
The Oakland University community is mourning the death of Professor Emeritus David Daniels, who passed away on Friday, April 24 at age 86. Daniels taught music for 28 years at OU — including three years as chair of the former Department of Music and three years as chair of the then newly-formed Department of Music, Theatre and Dance.

Thursday, May 21, 2020
In early March, SMTD musical theatre seniors traveled to New York City to perform for casting directors, agents and managers, and to participate in masterclasses and seminars with the industry’s leading artists. The acting seniors traveled to Chicago and performed for local agents and casting directors at Stage 773. They also participated in a number of workshops at The Acting Studio, including classes that focus on improvisation, voice over and on-camera work, auditions, and a concentrated introduction to the theatre, film, and television industry in Chicago. The OU students were one of the last groups of college students to do a showcase prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020
A new report by college ranking website GradReports.com shows that recent graduates of Oakland University public health master’s program and its related bachelor’s program earn among the highest median salaries in the nation compared to other recent graduates in those fields.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020
While now is the time to take precautionary steps and practice the preventive measures recommended by the CDC and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home” announcement, it is also a time for some in the Oakland University community to come together to meet the needs of the community.

Tuesday, March 03, 2020
Oakland University’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance presented Facing Our Truth: 10-Minute Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege from Dec 5-7 in the Varner Lab Theatre in Varner Hall. The collection of plays included works by Dan O’Brien, Winter Miller, Dominique Morisseau, Mona Mansour and Tala Manassah, Marcus Gardley, and A. Rey Pamatmat.

Thursday, December 19, 2019
At seven years old, Serena Scott took it upon herself to organize a water bottle campaign during Flint’s water crisis. She made posters, collected bottles from her Farmington Hills classmates and personally delivered 30 cases of donated water to her peers at a Flint elementary school.

Thursday, November 14, 2019
Upon graduating from Oakland University’s Master of Public Administration program last April, Benjamin Olsen’s career in public service was already taking shape. He recently started a job as program coordinator at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Lynnae Lehfeldt, associate professor of theatre, recently completed her certification in the Linklater Voice Method. Linklater Designation is the most prestigious certification in the field of Stage Voice. Designated Linklater Voice Teachers (DLTs) teach at the most sought after programs in the country — Yale, Carnegie Mellon University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — and Lehfeldt has the distinction of being the only DLT in the state of Michigan.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
As the fall semester approaches, Oakland University has received a record number of applications and is on pace to welcome its most academically talented freshman class. This year’s class of 2,717 freshmen holds an average GPA of 3.54 and an average SAT score of 1120. The university received applications from 14,858 freshmen and 3,427 transfers for a total of 18,285, the most applicants in OU’s history.

Friday, July 19, 2019
Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan K. Barnett has added another hat to his growing list of civic and community responsibilities. In addition to being mayor and serving as chairperson of the Oakland University Alumni Association Board, he has now been sworn in as the 77th President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Whether they’re taking the stage at Oakland University to perform with the OU Brass Band, touring with the children’s production of James and the Giant Peach, or studying abroad in Greece, students and alumni of OU’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance will be busy rehearsing and performing this summer throughout the state and beyond.

Friday, May 10, 2019
Jacob Corll, an Oakland University alum whose research led to the discovery of a master gene that regulates the expression of other genes involved in the development of corn kernels, was recently recognized as the co-first author of a manuscript published in The Plant Cell, a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Thursday, February 21, 2019
Marking its 35th year, Oakland University’s Women and Gender Studies Film Festival will present Challenging Femmephobia: Breaking the Gender Binary in Queer Communities. This year’s festival features screenings of the films “Making Masculine” and “The Same Difference.” The screenings, and a panel discussion, will take place from noon-3 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, in room 1050 of the Human Health Building on OU’s Rochester campus.

Thursday, February 14, 2019
Native Howl, a “thrash grass” band consisting of OU alumni Alex Holycross and Mark Chandler, as well as Josh LeMieux and Jake Sawicki, recently headlined a show at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit and will be joining rock legends Roger Daltrey, Kansas, Buddy Guy, 38 Special, Dave Davies, Foghat, The Outlaws, Nazareth, and more for the “Rock Legends Cruise VII” from Feb. 14-18.