Why We Soar: Where life is better

Amy Vickers Lee ’99 could never do it all by herself:

Judging the Greek Week dance-off. Coordinating international foods served at Culture Fest. Overseeing Christmas on Campus events in nearly every room of Kennedy Union. Setting up the ballroom for a dinner of international delegates.

As assistant director for UD’s Center for Student Involvement, Lee relied on student employees to help plan, organize, set up and staff the hundreds of activities happening every year out of Kennedy Union.

Students also made her work fun and rewarding, Lee said.

Lee recently retired after more than 30 years — the same number of years she’s been a donor to UD, making her one of the most loyal members of UD’s Front Porch Society. The society acknowledges donors who give at any level consistently for three or more fiscal years. Donors like Lee helped the University of Dayton reach its engagement goal for the We Soar campaign.

When she first came to UD, Lee had a freshly minted hospitality degree from Sinclair Community College. The assistant for catering soon saw her horizons widen, and she became responsible for ensuring the campus community had the resources it needed to make their events a success and guests always feel welcome.

That included a very special event Lee helped coordinate in the late 1990s. She had to learn the rules of diplomacy to set up a dinner for international dignitaries involved in the Bosnian peace process, which was negotiated in Dayton in 1995. Students rolled out and set up the tables which were round, to ensure all guests felt equal in status. Bomb-sniffing dogs regularly swept the room. 

“It was a very interesting experience to have something at that intense of a level,” she said.

She called getting to meet guests like science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and astronaut-turned-senator John Glenn a “perk of the job.”

Lee and her staff also had to pull out their emergency training when equipment in the bowling alley started to smoke, interrupting a birthday party for a 10-year-old boy. They herded partygoers outside as fire fighters arrived with lights flashing. Lee apologized effusively to the parent, who replied, “Are you kidding me? They’ll be talking about this for days.”

Lee returned to the classroom soon after she arrived at UD — and became a student alongside her employees — first as a communication major and later in the higher education program, from which she earned her master’s in 2005.

With her student workers, she often got to know them over four or five years — she said she had little turnover — and coached them through breakups and tough classes to then blossom into leaders and professionals.

Her job and the interests of her students helped direct her gifts over the years. She honored the relationship she developed with then-president Brother Raymond L. Fitz, S.M. ’64, by giving to a scholarship fund in his name and the Fitz Center for Community Leadership.

“He embodies the Marianist spirit,” she said.

She gives to support student mental health needs, the LGBTQ+ organization and the pep band. She’s also given to the rugby club, which holds a special place in her heart; her late husband, Jay Lee ’94, once coached the team and also worked in UD’s electron microscopy lab for more than 30 years. And she’s given to the UD Fund, which allows the University to support the campus community in ways that are needed the most.

Her advice for alumni is to find something that they’re passionate about — a club, program or professor — and give. “[I have seen how] a little bit can go a long way, and you touch a lot of lives,” she said.

Lee gives thanks for how her own life was changed by UD. When she was younger, she saw herself having a single career path in something she loved — catering.

“But once I got to UD, between the people I worked with who mentored me and my continuing education, doors opened to me that I never expected and created new career paths that helped me to grow personally and professionally. Unquestionably, it made my life better.”

Just like she’s hoping her time and gifts will help Flyer students have better lives, too.

photos courtesy of Amy Lee