About

History

Welcome to a bit of history about the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Florida A&M Alumni Association (NOVA FAMU).  The NOVA FAMU Alumni group began with its first meeting on July 19, 2009.  The NOVA FAMU Alumni group has since grown to over 20 Rattlers in the Northern and Central Virginia areas.  In October of 2009, a charter request was made to the Florida A&M Office of Alumni Affairs. In May of 2010, the Northern Virginia FAMU Alumni group was granted a charter.  As an official chapter, our primary goal is to increase our membership so that we can fully support Florida A&M University. One of our main purposes is to keep the Virginia Rattlers engaged and informed on issues and activities regarding Florida A&M University!

NOVA FAMU Alumni chapter’s primary location and where our meetings are held is in the Dale City/Woodbridge, VA area. Our founding member and first chapter president is De 'Shauna Thornton. Our charter members were: Armand Belcher, Goodman Bellamy, Vanessa Byrd, Vincent Byrd, Sharon Duncan, Tanya Hicks, Demetrius Jackson, LaShanda Jackson, Tawanna Sikes, Karis Spearman, De ‘Shauna Thornton, Michael Thornton, and WT Council. In addition to De ‘Shauna K. Thornton, the remaining original chapter officers were Vice-President Tawanna Sikes, Secretary Tanya Hicks and Treasurer WT Council. Our chapter in 2015-2016 officers were President Sharon Duncan, Vice-President Armand Belcher, Secretary Kyndra Middleton and Treasurer Chandrika Horton.

Some of our major milestones as a chapter

include our hosting of the 49 th Annual North

East Regional NAA Meeting in Old Town

Alexandria, VA in August 2013. Additionally,

in 2012 and 2013 to engage and recruit

potential Rattlers, we hosted a NOVA FAMU

Spring Information Fair for high school

students in the area.

We have also participated in various community service events including the Diabetes Walk and Donation in 2014, the Christmas Adopt a Family Clothing Drive in 2015 and the FAMU Day of Service Toiletry Donation to Forest Park H.S. in 2016. As a chapter we also put together activities for a Final Salute homeless female veteran supply donation in 2013, Salvation Army Toy Drive in 2013 and 2014, and the Greater Prince William County Back to School Drive in 2015.

Our alumni excel in many areas of life and have received numerous awards and recognition. Regionally we were recognized for our team efforts in hosting the 49 th Northeast Region National Alumni Association (NER NAA) meeting, and we have had several individual alumni awards in the region which include De ‘Shauna Thornton being awarded the 2015 Northeast Region Vice President Award and the 2014 Northeast Region Award. Armand Belcher (2013, 2015) and Sharon Duncan (2013, 2014) received NER certificates of appreciation. Kyndra Middleton (August 17) and De ‘Shauna Thornton (September 21) were also named Monday Morning Rattlers in 2015. Professionally there have been numerous awards for our members.  Among others, Jasmin Harris was recognized for authoring two of her books Freshman Fifteen and Journey After School and previously winning the Essence Wedding Contest in February of 2010. Kyndra Middleton was recognized as a Mellon Foundation Fellow (2011), Associate Professor with tenure (2014), University of New Hampshire writing scholar (2015) and the Education Pioneer Fellowship for 2015-2016 school year. Armand Belcher was recognized for becoming an APMG Certified IAITAM Approved trainer in 2015.

There were several activities/events we used to raise funds to donate to the University via the NAA Annual meetings and the NER Annual meetings. We also provided a Direct Book Scholarship in 2013. Ongoing staple events include our tried and true Spring Strike bowling event and our new HBCU Kickball tournament in which 2015 was our inaugural debut. Other fundraising and social events include the FAMU Football game watch events, various Rattler Roundups, tailgates for FAMU-Hampton and FAMU-Norfolk football games, various gift basket raffles including Easter, Valentines, and Father’s Day raffles. We have also held NOVA T-Shirt Sales and initiated NER T-shirt Sales as well as our newest Life member T-shirt Sales. Additionally, we have supported Homecoming and Florida Classic Raffle Ticket sales as well as various DC Alumni Chapter Events in the North East Region.

Some of our best practices for recruitment are using all available resources including the ones provided by the University for recruiting members and potential students. As an outreach for alumni members, we have reached out to the University for lists of graduates who now reside in the northern VA area. As an outreach to recruit potential FAMU students, we have attended college recruiting events or fairs to represent FAMU. Our chapter has participated in local college recruiting events organized by Northern VA chapters of Delta Sigma Theta, Kappa Alpha Psi and also the Alfred Street Baptist Church for numerous years. Additional best practices for recruitment of alumni members are offering incentives to new members, using social media, personally reaching out to alumni we know who are not currently chapter members, and wearing our FAMU NOVA alumni gear so others will know there is a chapter in the area.  Historically NOVA FAMU has had members actively involved in the Northeast Region. Currently NER officials include Sergeant-at-Arms De ‘Shauna Thornton, the Communications and Publicity Chair Armand Belcher, and NER Scholarship committee member Sharon Duncan.

Who we are