Fully Engaged: David Bassett, ’12, Returns to Help Alumni Better Connect to Hillsdale College
Written by Doug Goodnough
David Bassett, ’12, has spent most of his life looking for his place in the world.
After exploring several educational and career paths, he eventually discovered his place was with his alma mater. As Hillsdale College’s new director of Alumni Engagement, Bassett said he is ready to help other alumni better connect to both the College and fellow graduates.
“I saw the job of engaging more alumni and was just immediately drawn to it as really meaningful work,” said Bassett, who moved his family more than 2,300 miles from their Salem, Oregon, home to the Hillsdale campus in September. “This is my college, and I am going to do whatever I can to give back and be able to connect more alumni with each other.”
As the son of missionary parents, he spent nine years living in Kazakhstan, attending a Russian-speaking public school. After eventually returning to the U.S. to finish high school, he spent a couple of “gap” years figuring out his next step. First enrolling in a one-year program at a Christian school in Canada, he then learned about Hillsdale from his grandfather, an Imprimis subscriber. He took a deferred enrollment to Hillsdale, but once he finally arrived on campus, he knew he was in the right place.
“Hillsdale was so good for me,” Bassett said of his undergraduate years. “I look back on it and I’m so grateful because it expanded my interests. I think it matured me in a lot of different ways. I wish that I could have done more.”
After graduating, he worked for three years for the College’s InterVarsity campus ministry program. However, he decided to move back to Oregon, using his history degree to teach at a small Christian school. Eventually meeting and marrying his future wife, Tatyana, he briefly left teaching and enrolled in seminary. However, not finding the “right fit,” he went back into teaching.
“I finally concluded that classroom management was not my strength,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he dabbled in medical interpreting and online marketing, and then worked as a project manager for a construction company before finding his way back to Hillsdale.
“They were all good experiences, but very different,” he said. “It exposed me to a lot of different careers and different people. I enjoyed learning a lot in the process.”
Bassett believes those experiences will help him in his current role of engaging alumni who have a broad spectrum of backgrounds.
“If you know Hillsdale, then you know that our interests are so varied,” he said. “On the one hand, you have the common experience, but on the other hand, you have a different experience at the same school. And I like that. I think that’s a strength. It’s a feature that makes Hillsdale great.”
He said a focus is making the College and its resources more accessible to alumni. Bassett is working to establish new alumni chapters around the country, new career affinity groups, and a robust class ambassador program, among other things.
“I’m excited about these opportunities to help our alumni regain some of that Hillsdale community,” Bassett said.
His wife is the daughter of Russian immigrants, and they both speak fluent Russian. He said the return to the Hillsdale community has been invigorating for his family, especially their two young children.
“The kids are going to love the snow,” Bassett said. “We love going to the beach, and we look forward to sunnier weather when we can go to Lake Michigan.”
A lover of great books and podcasts, he said he is always up for a good construction project. His current one is building up the College’s alumni engagement efforts.
“The graduate is the fruit of the labor of the College,” he said. “Now that I’ve intentionally connected more to the College, I see how much there still is the College can offer.”
Alumni can engage with Bassett at [email protected].
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in December 2022