Surrounded by decades of Point Park University yearbooks, jerseys and photos, Lisa Patterson works at the job she loves, connecting with over 24,000 alumni just like herself.Down the hall from Patterson’s office, Kristen Baginski is busy getting to know the university she is now working for as the director of alumni relations.Many students may be unaware of the Alumni Relations office located on the eighth floor of Frontier Hall, but Baginski and Patterson hope to change that this year by reaching out to all students to help them network with alumni.“One of our missions going forward is going to be connecting alumni to current students and helping them with internships, with jobs, with just having the students be able to talk to someone in their field,” Baginski said Friday in her office.Patterson, the assistant director of alumni relations, and Baginski took over the office at the end of July following nearly an eight-month period where no one was working in the office.Now, the two are working on practical goals to connect with alumni.“Together Lisa and I are building bridges and relationships with all of the other people and departments in the university over this next year, so that they understand how we can work together and that we have a very cooperative working relationship,” Baginski said.Patterson has a connection to Point Park that stems back to the 1980s when she came here as an undergrad. Patterson was asked to come back in 2004 to work in the operations office and decided she should finish the degree she started in the 1980s. She graduated from the university in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. In 2008, Patterson began working for the development office, and has now moved on to her current position.“I’m a very proud alum. Other people tell me I kind of wear that out on my sleeve and I do,” Patterson said Thursday in her office.Meeting alumni and learning about who they are and about their achievements inspired Patterson to take on her new position. “I am very proud of what our alumni do and I think I bring a nice connection to the university,” Patterson said.  “I really love it; I think it’s natural. I am life-long Pittsburgh resident and I know Point Park’s history and its growth.”Baginski, the former faculty research services librarian at University of Pittsburgh Law School and the former deputy chief of staff for Mayor Luke Ravenstahal, is thankful for the connections Patterson already has outside and inside the university. As a new staff member at Point Park, she already feels at home.“People are so welcoming, accommodating and proactive. I just said in a meeting I shouldn’t continue to be surprised by how helpful, kind and accommodating people are, but it’s great,” Baginski said.Baginski’s and Patterson’s day-to-day tasks tend to vary from meetings to planning events, but Baginski and Patterson are focused on making sure the alumni and current students know about the relations office.“Most places you don’t know if you are going to be a part of an alumni relations group until the day you walk out the door and the first thing you get is, ‘we are so glad you graduated, can you please give us money’ and we don’t want that to be the relationship that students have with us,” Baginski said. “We want students [here] from the get go, but that’s very important to me that students have that awareness of us.”Students can work more closely with the Alumni Relations Office as members of The Green and Gold Society. This group works events and networks with alumni and staff. Baginski and Patterson are now looking for other ways to connect current students with the alumni. For example, during the weekend of Sept. 28, the Athletic Reunion Games and the Pioneer Athletic Hall of Fame bring together current and former student athletes.“We want that big type of family feeling when you are a student to when you actually become and alumni,” Baginski and Patterson both said.Giving the students practical knowledge on what to do when they get out of college or what to do while in college to get into a certain field, gets a “charge” out of the alumni, according to Baginski and Patterson.“Alumni are your best ambassadors to this university,” Baginski said. “We have a lot of alumni who are excited and want to promote the school.”