Volunteer of the Year Award - 2022: Val Alonzo '96

2022: Val Alonzo '96

From remarks by Kevin Buckley '79, president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors as he presented this year's award:

It’s fitting that our theme for this year’s Leadership Conference is Loyal Sons and Daughters, because the person I’m about to introduce as our Volunteer of the Year truly embodies what it means to be a Loyal Daughter of Notre Dame.

When we talk about sons and daughters, about Notre Dame, Our Mother, we’re using the language of family. And as I’m sure you all know, we love to refer to the Notre Dame family when talking about our community of students, alumni, parents, and friends. That’s not just because it sounds nice — which it does — but because it’s true. Notre Dame is a family, and today’s honoree, Val Alonzo, is one of our family’s most tireless advocates.

The family connection starts at home. Val is a member of the Class of 1996, and her two children Andres and Iliana Contreras — a 2019 graduate who recently joined the Alumni Association as the Young Alumni & Student Program Director — also attended the University. Iliana will tell you, though, there wasn’t much choice in the matter. Theirs is a Notre Dame family through and through.

But Val has not only been a Notre Dame proponent with her own children. Throughout the years, she has stayed involved with the Notre Dame Club of San Antonio, taking on leadership roles and fostering a family-like atmosphere, driven by her relentless passion for the University.

She has been president of the San Antonio club since 2016, prior to which she served as vice president. Additionally, she serves as the Diversity Council Regional Director for the Southwest Region.

Val’s approach is all about creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for ALL in the ND family.

Everyone who attends a San Antonio club event receives a characteristic warm greeting from Val, and she extends that welcome beyond the local community and region.

But perhaps Val’s role with the club in San Antonio has had the biggest impact in its efforts to engage with current and prospective students. Val is constantly thinking of ways to support current students, whether by sending them treats or messages, or sending them shoutouts on social media. In 2020, the club delivered gift bags to students that included a club t-shirt, money for Grotto candles, cupcakes, and a club sign.

But a story that has stood out to me most came from Val herself, which she shared in her club’s 2019 Annual Report. In it, she described a meeting with an accepted, first-generation student whose family didn’t believe Notre Dame was “a place for people like them: financially challenged, Hispanic, Spanish-speaking.” After the meeting, that student, Carolina Robledo, eventually enrolled.

Four years later, Val had a similar encounter with another first-generation student who dreamed of attending Notre Dame but was worried about fitting in once she got here, or even at the accepted students reception Val was inviting her to. Would her Spanish-speaking parents even be able to have a meaningful conversation with anyone at the event?

Val immediately reassured her that several other alumni, students, and parents in attendance, including herself, were also Spanish speakers and that she had already taken the first step in joining the ND family.

But she also called Carolina, now a senior, a Choral member, and a future ACE teacher, and asked her to attend the reception because there was another student who felt just like she once had.

In her report, Val wrote: “We give every student with a demonstrated financial need a scholarship, but we go further than that. We call them, we text them. We welcome their families as our own. … We check in on them … We pray for them. … But it wasn’t until I overheard Carolina telling our prospective student’s parents that the people from the ND Club in San Antonio have been como familia” — like family — “that I was overwhelmed.”

Val went on: “We’ve checked the boxes, we’ve made the connection, but it’s the students. They are the mission. They are the future members of the Alumni Association, the future rays of light in our world, the future forces for good. We’ve continued to make that our focus and improve on it. … We are more than a club: we are a family. Como familia. We are Notre Dame.”

As you can see, the family theme really couldn’t be more appropriate today, because the enormous impact Val has had on countless Notre Dame students, alumni, parents and friends, has certainly made the Notre Dame family a stronger, more inclusive place.

I know I speak on behalf of the University when I say how grateful we are for her dedication and leadership.

So please join me in welcoming and thanking, from the Class of 1996, from the Notre Dame Club of San Antonio and Alumni Diversity Council, a Wild Woman of Walsh and our Volunteer of the Year, Val Alonzo.