Pacific Index

President of the Alumni Association Board of Representatives, Rhony Bhopla shares why she loves being an alumna– as well as some other tips

“No matter who you are, you’re going to be welcome here,” contests President of the Alumni Association Board of Representatives, Rhony Bhopla. “It’s a microcosm of the world that should be.” 

To Bhopla, that’s what Pacific University is: a small example of what the world could be, built by people like those at Pacific. Bhopla is an alumna of Pacific’s Master of Fine Arts program (MFA). “When I was a student…I fell in love with my faculty teachers immediately,” Bhopla expresses. Being in the MFA program is a community separate from the rest of campus– they’re like their own little family. 

After Bhopla graduated in 2022, she felt like her family grew tenfold to envelop all of Pacific. “I just feel like being in a university environment after you graduate; it evolves into a place of community where you find things that you didn’t know existed about your university,” she describes. Her thoughts encapsulate the feelings of many alumni, a lot of whom were on campus over the Homecoming weekend. 

Homecoming is a special time of year when students and alumni mingle. Bhopla does a fair amount of mingling, regardless of the season. Her interactions with students and alumni alike are one of the many reasons she desired to become a part of Pacific’s Alumni Board. “I wanted to see how I could connect with everyone in their faucets of engagement with the university,” Bhopla elaborates. “So many people here are working really hard to reach their personal goals, and academic, and it’s very, very moving to see people just trying to make it one way or another.” 

Like all alumni, Bhopla personally knows the struggles of being a student. Assignments feel like tsunamis, piling up and coming to crush your grades. Bhopla’s understanding of this feeling, as well as her comprehension of what it’s like to be an alum, make her a fountain of wisdom. “It feels hard right now, but don’t let that take over your…mindset,” she encourages. “Gratitude leads pretty much everything I do.” 

Bhopla candidly admits that gratitude isn’t always easy, and her life experiences have certainly tested her. She shares that both of her parents passed away while she was in the heat of her program. After taking a bit of time off from university, she realized how much she admired the stability Pacific gave her. “It just like, sort of made it worse,” she openly shares. “I didn’t have a routine, I didn’t have incentive for me to wake up and do something, I didn’t have a reason to do the small things like get laundry done, or you know, take a walk.” 

“When I came back to the university, I realized that the university actually helped me develop of sense of who I am as a person,” she explains, hitting the point of why Pacific is a special place. Not only did she bag a master’s here, but she also found a steady community and was encouraged to dive deeper into herself. 

In turn, that’s what Bhopla and the Alumni Board wants to pass on to current students and future alumni. Right now, the board is working on solving food insecurity issues for students, along with a number of other projects for alumni and the Pacific community. “Being able to represent…our projects and how we want to serve the alumni community– is a major part of this,” she says, describing her position on the board and what it means. “We as an alumni organization…we represent over 34,000 alumni.” 

Bhopla’s role as president is very important, but it takes a very special person to fill the role with the sort of compassion and drive that Bhopla has. Homecoming weekend was a wonderful opportunity to see a mass of alumni on-campus as they’re all walking sources of information, wisdom, and compassion. But as Bhopla points out, the alumni population is ever-growing, with current students the next generation. “We represent alumni, but we also know that you’re the future alumni. You know, we’re all a family, so we’re connected period.”