Christopher Ossont ’15

Always a Greyhound

Christopher Ossont’s passion for Moravian University was ignited long before he enrolled as a freshman. “My brother graduated from Moravian in 2007, and ever since he looked at the school for the first time, my family and I spent many days on campus going to football games, track meets, and just walking around. Even when I was 12 or 13, I loved the way the campus looked. I just fell in love with it,” he says.

That love deepened after he spent his own four years as a Moravian undergrad. “It wasn’t just a place where I got a great education; it was a place I called home.”

So, only three years after his graduation from Moravian, Ossont is putting his money where his mouth is,
 making regular donations to his Bethlehem stomping 
grounds. “As alums, we need to give back to the
 place that gave us so much,” he says. “Every little bit 
helps; $20 can buy supplies for an art class or, combined with other donations, help a student get housing on campus,” he says.

Ossont donates as part of the JAC Pack, a group of loyal Moravian alumni donors who give on a monthly basis. Through the JAC Pack, alums can give any amount they can afford, from just a few dollars a month to thousands or more. “It’s easy for me—I can give a budgeted amount every month, and at the end of the year, I have a donation I can be proud of,” he says.

At Moravian, Ossont majored in education. But it was his time spent outside of class, as resident assistant and in the Moravian Activities Counsel (formerly IMPACT), that sparked his love of student affairs. “So I decided not to teach in a classroom but rather to be an educator in a more holistic sense, to help students intermingle with the world outside their classes and majors, because after all, it’s not just about one piece but about all the interactions you have on a college campus that mold who you are and what you do in the future.”

“It’s easy for me—I can give a budgeted amount every month, and at the end of the year, I have a donation I can be proud of.”

From Moravian, Ossont went on to get a master’s degree in counseling and college personnel from Shippensburg University. Today, he is working as an area coordinator and assistant track and field coach at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

In everything he does, Ossont is the embodiment of Moravian’s ongoing mission to pay it forward. “Somebody helped give me an opportunity, and I feel it’s important to continue the cycle,” he says. “Moravian is a place where anyone can get an education, no matter what their situation or where they come from in the world. And I think all of us—current students, alumni, administration, staff—should promote this.” He adds, “one of the things I love most about Moravian is that whether you’re a first-year student or an alum, you’re always a Greyhound. I may be a [Elizabethtown] Blue Jay now, but in my heart of hearts, I will always be a Greyhound.”