SEPTEMBER 1999

FEATURES

Klondar

SEMINOLES IN NYC

By Bayard Stern
Managing editor, Florida State Times

Florida State graduates often succeed in Manhattan, where the competition is fierce and the pace is fast.
But sometimes they want to relax and have a good time with friends, not rivals, who share something important from their past. Many of them find that atmosphere in the monthly outings of the New York Seminole Club.

"It's very casual," says Lara Klondar of Fort Lauderdale, who graduated from FSU in 1995 with a speech communication major. "There is a great cross section of people who really enjoy being around each other.

It's so rewarding when someone new comes and meets everyone, and all of a sudden they have a group where everyone has the common bond of Florida State. It's really amazing." Klondar is a good example of the early success of energetic FSU graduates. At 25, she hasn't missed a beat.

She went on from Florida State, where she was a Seminole Ambassador and a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, to Arizona State University in Tempe, where she earned a master's degree in higher education administration, finishing her degree requirements with an internship at New York University.

At NYU, she worked in the advising center and decided to stay in the city and counsel college students.

And she decided to make the Seminole Club a regular stop. Now she's president. The New York City club, one of 116 in the United States and abroad, has about 80 active members. "We plan one event a month in the spring," Klondar said. "We've done a lot of really fun things. We went bowling and took a double decker bus ride. We did this thing called the Beast, which is a speed boat ride around the New York Harbor. We usually get about 15-20 people at these activities. I think it's a little easier to meet people doing this type of thing because the group is smaller, and the game- watching parties can be a little overwhelming."

About the same time - July 1997 - that she hooked up with the Seminole Club, Klondar started working for Columbia University, the venerable Ivy League giant on the upper west side of New York City. She is now assistant dean of students in the School of General Studies.

"I have many, many hats," Klondar said from her campus office. "A lot of my time is spent advising students on a wide range of academic, social, and personal issues and some administrative work that goes with that. About 25 percent of my time is spent designing and developing orientation and coordinating that, which is a twice-a-year project."

Klondar eagerly credits Florida State with preparing her for the work she enjoys. "At FSU I started a peer advising program and it has really come a long way since," she said.
"I worked with Joan Youngblood in the division of undergraduate studies (Youngblood now works at Tallahassee Community College). Joan and I worked really closely together to develop this peer advising program, and it was a great experience."

Klondar is an administrator now, professionally and socially.

And she enjoys both.

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