Newsletter

Susana Alemán

"You'll be in charge of getting the sunflowers for the graduation ceremony," Mark Yudof, then Dean of UT's School of Law, told Susana Alemán in 1986 shortly after she received her JD and accepted the position of the Law School's assistant dean of student affairs.

"I didn't know if he was joking or not," related Susana, RFSA's new scholarship chairman, "but I wasn't about to let 600 law school graduates down."

Thus began her daunting quest to gather the perfect sunflowers for this century-old law school tradition. For 21 years, May found Susana scouring the highways and byways of Central Texas in search of sunflowers suitable for pinning on the law grads. For more information about this ceremony please see: www.utexas.edu/law/depts/sao/graduation/sunflower.html.

Since sunflowers generally don't bloom in Austin until June, Susana's pursuit took her south, often ranging as far away as San Antonio and Pleasanton. She collected any place she spotted the flowers, from highway right-of-way to private property. She plans to write an article about her sunflower adventures, and tells about one year when a highway patrolman stopped her while she was collecting on the side of the road, saying it was dangerous. After he found out what she was doing, he scouted around the near-by territory, returned, and led her to a big field crowded with blooms.

Of course, collecting is only a portion of the entire sunflower job, which has to be completed within two days. Susana says she puts the freshly cut blooms into buckets of water for transportation back to Austin, and then cuts, trims and places each in a floral vial before being refrigerated until the big day.

It is this kind of dedication that Susana has brought to every aspect of her professional and personal life and is reflected in the many honors she has received through the years.  One of her most cherished is the scholarship the law school students established in her name when she retired.  Then, in 2007, the House of Representatives of the 80^th Texas Legislature passed a resolution recognizing her significant achievements at the University and contributions to the greater community. In 2006 she was chosen Pathfinder by the Travis County Women Lawyers' Association, and in 2000-2001 was named Outstanding Leader by UT's Hispanic Faculty/Staff Association.

Susana grew up in Falfurias in a family deeply involved in community service, and continuing that tradition has been natural for her.  At UT she has served on the advisory council for its Elementary School and the selection committee of the Women's Athletics Hall of Honor. She has been administrative advisor for the Faculty Council Standing Committee on Recruitment and Retention and mentor for the Dean of Students Mentor Program. Some of her most recent contributions to the community consist of being lector for St. Albert the Great Catholic Church, serving on its finance committee, active participation in St. Al's Gals, and working with La Noche de Opera of the Austin Lyric Opera.

Susana says the one of the hardest things she has learned since retiring is being able to say no. Nevertheless she has newly agreed to chair the steering committee for the Texas Exes Hispanic Association and has become an active participant in Austin's Pan American Round Table.

But she says she also sees retirement as a chance to reconnect with friends and relatives and keeps a lively social calendar with family, friends and former colleagues. She loves planning parties and recently organized a family reunion on her mothers side attended by 175 people. Then there's the Christmas in July cookie swap she arranges every year 'when you actually have time to bake cookies.'  If this didn't keep her busy enough she holds season tickets to UT football, volleyball, men and women's basketball, baseball and soft ball games.  And did we mention the 60-odd craft items she makes for Christmas presents every year.

However, Susana has now mapped a plan to slow down. Namely, she will re-enter the workforce.   This time she will go back to her first love, which is education.  She holds bachelors and masters degrees from UT and Texas A&I in Kingsville in the education field, and had almost ten years experience in that sphere before entering law school.

RFSA is lucky that this busy woman agreed to chair our scholarship committee before she learned to say no.