History was made in New York City on July 15 th 2004, when some members of Aloysian alumni/ae and friends convened to consider the formation of an organization of the alumni/ae and the friends of St. Aloysius Schools and College, (“SAC” or “the alma mater”), to actively support the growth and development of St. Aloysius College and its institutions.

 Rev. Dr. Oswald Mascharenhas, S.J., a fellow Aloysian and currently Professor of Marketing, University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan, presided over the meeting. Present at the meeting were: Sujay Aranha; Tony D’Silva; Joel Fernandes; Lynette Fernandes; Stany Fernandes; Joe Gonsalves; Achuth Kamath; Barbara Kamath; Vivian Kamath; Anand Lobo; Praveen Lobo; Rhea Lobo; Ashok Mathias, CPA; Rev. John Mendonca; Mahendra Pratap; and Anil Rodrigues.

Dr. Brian Pereira, a Tufts University Nephrologist, CEO of New England Health Care Foundation and (voluntary) President of National Kidney Foundation, Boston, MA and Rev. Pradeep Sequiera, S.J., until recently the Rector of St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, both Aloysians were special guests at the meeting.

Tony D’Silva welcomed the participants on behalf of the principal organizers, Joe Gonsalves, Praveen Lobo, Rev. Ozzie Mascharenhas, S.J. and himself. He particularly thanked Fr. Ozzie and Joe for making the long trip by driving over ten hours from Detroit, and Dr. Brian Pereira, for kindly accepting to attend the meeting during his visit to New York city and provide advice and share his extensive experience, working in and dealing with the non-profit sector.

Dr. Anupam Agarwal, Nephrologist, Birmingham, Alabama, Merlin Nazareth, Financial Planner, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Ramachandra Rao, Professor of Metallurgy, McGill University, Canada and Jathin Ullal, IT professional, Chicago, Illinois sent special messages of good wishes and support for the meeting.

Messages of encouragement and prayers were received from Rev. Fr. Vijay Prabhu, Jesuit Provincial of Karnataka, Rev. Fr. Ronnie Prabhu, Rev. Fr. Francis Serrao, Rector, St. Aloysius College, Rev. Fr. Eugene Lobo, Principal, St. Aloysius, Rev. Fr. Denzil Lobo, Director, IT Institute, St. Aloysius College.

Expressing their inability to attend, Anand Adiga; Joseph Adiyody, M.D.; Sandesh Bhat; Ashok Britto; Jawahar D’Souza, M.D.; M. P. Jayarama; Marian Kamath, M.D.; Vinod Menezes; Dinker Rai, M.D.; and Edgar Rasquinha, CPA, all residing in the New York City area, communicated their whole-hearted support to St. Aloysius College and for the proposed organization.

A power-point presentation (PPP) full of pictures, slides and subscript, giving an up-to-date summary of the recent growth and current projects at SAC was specially prepared for the meeting by Fr. Denzil Lobo and his team of IT professionals in Mangalore. Praveen Lobo organized the power point presentation for the meeting and Fr. Pradeep Sequiera, S.J., and Praveen supplemented with additional commentary and clarifications on some of the slides. The participants also got a preview of the website – ANNA (Aloysian Network of North America) created by Praveen in collaboration with Ms. Lakshmi Mareddy, an alumna of SAC.

Joe Gonsalves, a dynamic veteran alumni drew attention of the gathering to the proposed “State-Of-The-Art Library Project – one that can serve as the worthy repository of knowledge for the entire region”. Speaking of the humble beginning of the idea of the proposed organization he said: “In a small room in Detroit, Fr. Ozzie, Tony and I sat and deliberated over the formation of a foundation to build networks of communication and collaboration between Aloysians and friends in North America”. He emphasized the need to organize a formal body, quoting Mahatma Gandhi who had said: “We must become the change we want to see”, and urged all saying: “We must become a vehicle for informing, inspiring, and involving Aloysians and friends everywhere”.

Fr. Oswald Mascharenhas (Fr. Ozzie) briefed the participants on the importance of supporting the alma mater that provided all of us excellent education and continues to do so to the present generation. He encouraged the participants to support and be partners of the alma mater in extending the same excellence in education to others in Mangalore and the surrounding communities. He particularly stressed the need for creating a registered organization – trust or foundation, for the specific purpose of actively supporting the alma mater on an ongoing basis and also to strengthen the network of bonding relationships among the alumni/ae. He urged the participants to contact at least five other alumni and friends and expand the number of members in the proposed organization.

Fr. Ozzie pointed out that St. Aloysius College has been very bold and aggressive in taking up new projects because of the need for such projects in the community and has been struggling to complete the projects and lately had to incur debts. He said SAC has borrowed heavily for the projects under construction, from various sources. As a result, SAC is now forced to slow down on its expansion and be fiscally cautious with its projects. It was essential that the alumni and friends in North America be aware of this critical situation and come forward to help in every way possible.

Copies of the draft “Articles of Association, Charter and Bylaws” of the proposed organization “Aloysians and Friends of North America (AFNA)” were distributed to the participants. Fr. Ozzie requested all alumni and friends to review the document and critique it and provide advice and suggestions on any and all parts of the draft document, particularly on: 1) the name of the organization, 2) the vision, goals and objectives, and 3) the Charter and Bylaws.

He said that the input from alumni and friends was very critical for setting the organization on a sound footing, even as the official document is being finalized for formal registration of the organization.

He clarified that the alma mater depends not only on the alumni/ae but recognizes the past and current support from non-alumni/ae, particularly the family members of the alumni/ae and other friends who support because they appreciate the wonderful work SAC is doing in the field of education and community development. And therefore, it is important that the proposed organization would by its very definition be of the alumni/ae and friends of SAC.

Dr. Brian Pereira complemented Fr. Ozzie Mascharenhas for taking up the initiative to create such an organization of the alumni and friends. He said that the leadership and involvement of the Jesuit Fathers in organizing the alumni and SAC friends was very much needed and critical. He also said that it is inspiring to see how much the Jesuits in Mangalore are doing with meager resources, to expand the scope of education by providing new departments and creating new projects.

He suggested that each alumnus and friend should try to reach at least two more alumni and friends and help in getting members. He also shared his experience in organizing donor support, in cash and kind, from the alumni, friends and organizations for various causes, specially for the Kidney Foundation of America, St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore and Fr. Muller’s Hospital & College in Mangalore. He emphasized the need for obtaining 501c tax-exemption status for the proposed organization and thus providing additional incentives to all  

Dr. Brian, Fr. Ozzie made pledges towards the proposed AFNA/APNA “Founding Membership Donations”.

It was unanimously decided to form the trust and take necessary steps, including all formalities and legal requirements. An Ad Hoc Committee was formed with Joe Gonsalves, Chairman; Fr. Ozzie Mascharenhas, President; Tony D’Silva, Vice President; Praveen Lobo, Secretary; and Ashok Mathias, Treasurer. It was also decided to request all alumni and friends for pledges towards membership donations as well as the current projects of SAC, specially to support the new Library Project in cash and kind – especially by way of collecting books and periodicals and arranging their shipping to Mangalore and exploring grants from corporate and non-profit donors.

The meeting concluded with a final request by Fr. Ozzie to each participant to contact at least five more alumni and friends regarding the proposed organization. Fr. Pradeep Sequiera proposed a vote of thanks and it was followed by buffet dinner and fellowship.