Campus Colleagues: Erin Vestrand

Standing next to the NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship trophy in the UM-Dearborn Office of the Chancellor earlier this year, Erin Vestrand leaned over and gave it an air hug. After the Wolverines won the championship game, the trophy was on display in the Renick University Center for an afternoon, with a brief layover in the Administrative Building.

To Vestrand, a '15 UM-Dearborn alum who now works for the university's Office of Institutional Advancement as leadership annual giving officer, it symbolized the ups and downs that come in a sports program and in life. "I've been bleeding maize and blue since I was little - I have a picture of me tailgating with my family when I was 10, and I visited campus and went to games way before that. I think that familiarity helped me feel so at home when I did a UM-Dearborn campus visit in high school - I just knew UM-Dearborn was right for me," she says. "On the football side of things, I've seen from Lloyd Carr to Rich Rod to Harbaugh and more. My dad and I experienced the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows - sometimes we'd drive back from games in silence. So I had to see the trophy and get a photo. The first person I texted it to was my dad. He no longer attends games due to some health issues, but that trophy was a high moment we shared. He was so proud that he'd send me a text every couple days to resend the photo so it would be at the top of his texts so he could show it to people."

In this month's edition of Campus Colleagues, Vestrand talks about who and what inspires her, and the power of being open to new experiences.

UM-Dearborn professors and flexible thinking helped get her to where she is today.

Vestrand, who is from Riverview, knew she wanted to stay close to home for college and smaller class sizes - but she also wanted that Block M education. Always a social person, she thought she could make more connections at UM-Dearborn and get to know her professors better because it was a tight-knit community. She says it was the right choice.

At the time, Vestrand wanted to be a school psychologist in public schools - she says even as a newer student, her teachers were looking out for her. "One of my professors came up to me as I was getting into an elevator. It was Sociology Professor Pam Aronson. She told me about applying for internships, graduate school, and other opportunities on campus to get experience. It was this a-ha moment," Vestrand says. "It felt great to know you had someone who cared about you enough to do that and be in your corner. During my time at UM-Dearborn, I had a lot of professor experiences like that."

After doing job shadowing and seeing some of the limitations public schools face due to a lack of funding, Vestrand decided she'd be happier connecting students with what they needed through a different route.

"If students and programs need money, maybe I need to be the person who fundraises for them to get them what they need to be successful. If someone doesn't have the books or transportation they need, we can fundraise for it. Fundraising won't cure cancer directly - but it funds the ability of a student to work in a lab or get the education they need to one day find a breakthrough," Vestrand says. "So it might seem like a stretch from where I started, but it made sense. It was a full circle moment for me." Vestrand's first fundraising position after graduation was at UM-Ann Arbor and she moved to UM-Dearborn when a position became open in 2017. "It was a no-brainer for me to come back home," she says.

The 'Look to Michigan' campaign is her current focus.

The university just kicked off the "Look to Michigan" fundraising campaigngn. Vestrand says people talk about big gifts and those are important. But she knows that many people - herself included - don't have the budget for those. "But I can give a smaller recurring gift through Renew Blueto the UM-Dearborn food pantry so a student can eat," she says.

As she begins excitedly talking about fundraising, she stops to acknowledge she knows it is a topic that may make eyes glaze over. "Hear me out," she says. "There are many ways and levels on how we can change people's lives and it can be customized to what you think is needed. Feel like your profession needs more students going into the field? You can set up a scholarship. Want a student org you care about to host or attend an event? There are sponsorships." Recently Vestrand helped secure sponsorships for Hack Dearborn, a student hackathon that welcomed nearly 300 students from campus, and across the U.S. and Canada. Company representatives from Amazon, Carhartt and others attended as well.

"Campaigns get the money needed to connect our students - many who are first in their families to go to college - to opportunities like studying abroad and stipends so they can get paid to do research with faculty members," Vestrand points out. "People's gifts make these things happen."

She finds power in the word yes.

Vestrand says her favorite saying is an African proverb: "If you want to fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." She says she tries to live by these words and is motivated by the social aspects of the activities in which she participates. "When I was at UM-Dearborn, I played women's club soccer because I like being a part of a tight-knit community." she says. "I also advocated for the club team to become a collegiate one - I'm proud to say UM-Dearborn Athletics and leadership made it happen."

Today, Vestrand looks for ways to get involved in just about everything - her mantra is to say yes to the things she wants to do. "You never know where it might lead you. Through Stay and Play Detroit, I've joined kickball, volleyball and dodgeball teams. And I'm now trying tap dance at a studio in Ferndale. Since I was a kid, I wanted to take tap dancing lessons, but I was so busy with soccer games and practices that it didn't work out. So I decided that I was going to start dancing in my 30s. I love it."

Vestrand says saying yes led to one of the best things that's recently happened to her. While volunteering at Almost Home Animal Rescue, she was offered a fostering opportunity. "That led to me adopting Sherlock Bones in 2023. He's my best friend and has the most gentle soul," she says of the Labrador Retriever mix. "If I wouldn't have put myself out there, we might not have met. We do almost everything together now. I have the most adorable green jacket for him that he wears on walks - but he's not a State fan."

If not on a sports field, her favorite U-M location is the UM-Dearborn greenhouse.

Vestrand was given a plant as a gift during the pandemic in 2020 and she says that her obsession with plants has grown - pun intended - out of control. Now when she goes to the store, she'll buy a plant. "I learned that I like being surrounded by them in my house. But when I'm not home, I love the campus greenhouse. It's a really beautiful, quiet place where you can be surrounded by life. It's great to see classes use the space too," she says.

But spending time watching and playing sports on U-M fields also holds a place near to her heart. "When I was a first-year UM-Dearborn student, I got football season tickets - but I'd always leave my seat to find my dad where he had season tickets," she says. "Dad's a Ferris State University grad, but he taught me to really love this place with football Saturdays. He started going to games with friends and it later became what we did as a family."

Vestrand says her family is a house divided, however. "It's all in fun, but my sister went to Michigan State and is trying to teach my niece Claire, who's 6, and nephew Beau, who's 4, to be Spartan fans. But I have plans," she says. "Like my dad did for me, I'm going to take them to Michigan games. They will be Wolverine fans. I may have already taught Claire to cheer, 'Go Blue!' It's tradition."

Want to connect with Vestrand? Reach out at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn, where she often shares good things happening around UM-Dearborn's campus.

Story by Sarah Tuxbury