The next time you walk into Room 301 to talk to your computer science teacher, notice the tiny room on the left, which houses a crucial but often overlooked part of the Stuyvesant Community: Stuyvesant’s Alumni Association.

Currently, the association has 30,643 members, of which approximately 3,500 are voting members. To become a member, you must have attended Stuyvesant High School, and to become a voting member, you must pay annual dues of 40 dollars (25 if you are a college student or retired).

The Alumni Association’s goal is to “help the school, help the student pubs and clubs, teams, and the academic departments,” Henry Grossberg (‘82) the Executive Director of the association said. As Executive Director, Grossberg is in his office from nine to five organizing events, reunions, and monthly board meetings, and keeping the association running.

The association has many committees, including the Scholarships and Grants Committee, and the Membership and Fundraising Committee. All of the committees convene in monthly Board Meetings, where money circulation and the business of running the organization are discussed.

The association has done a great deal to help the school financially, giving money to both academic classes and student organizations, including The Spectator. The money the association gives to each of the departments usually comes from Stuyvesant alumni and parents. This year 4,459 dollars were given to the Chemistry and Physics department to help buy lab equipment. The association also gave a significant amount to clubs at Stuyvesant, including 20,000 dollars to help pay travel expenses for the Speech and Debate team State and National championship tournaments. Altogether, the association has allocated 216,457.42 dollars to the departments and teams at Stuyvesant.

Aside from helping the departments, the Alumni Association has also been very generous in giving out grants and scholarships. The association hosts an annual scholarship competition in which students can apply, generally through writing an essay.

“There are lots of different scholarships with lots of different criteria. Many of them are donated by alums and families, and many are memorial scholarships,” Katherine Bendo, a consultant to the Alumni Association, and parent of an ‘06 alumnus, said. This year 20 scholarships were granted to seniors, and about 10 grants were given to students, making a grand total of over 60,000 dollars. Grants are given to students with financial needs, and are not always meant to help pay college tuition, while scholarships are allotted specifically to seniors, usually for the purpose of paying for college.

“Many of the scholarships were scholarships in memory of someone, and some had different criteria than others,” senior James Kim said, recipient of the Sol Tanne Scholarship. When asked how the scholarship would help his college life, he said, “Other than just tuition, there are also many hidden expenses from college, so the scholarship helps me in that aspect.”

As its name suggests, the Alumni Association also organizes events for alums and works to keep them informed about the school. Three to four times a year, the association publishes a newsletter, which includes news from the school, letters to the association, news about the faculty, notes about the alumni, and news about the events the association hosted. The association also updates its website frequently.

“We are the link between the school, faculty, alumni, and board of directors,” Grossberg said.

The association organizes events for the entire Stuyvesant community as well as alumni. It has organized tours of museums and the 100th year celebration of the school-the 2004 “Stuycentennial”- along with a variety of other events. Last year the association arranged for Stuyvesant alumnus Alec Klein (‘85) to come to Stuy for a reading and signing of his book “A Class Apart.”

“For me [the reunions] were wonderful. It always is nice to go back to a time when you are 13, 14, 15 years old. It is so nice to see people you haven’t seen in many years and don’t run into often,” said Abby Scheck (‘72), a member of the association.

“It is so nice to keep the traditions of the school alive,” Scheck said. “There are so many accomplishments. I know I take great pleasure when I see how far my classmates have come.”