{"id":17373,"date":"2026-09-25T20:18:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T00:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=17373"},"modified":"2026-10-17T09:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T13:04:43","slug":"a-personal-happy-birthday-from-president-maclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2026\/09\/25\/a-personal-happy-birthday-from-president-maclaren\/","title":{"rendered":"A personal \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d from President MacLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"dslc-theme-content\"><div id=\"dslc-theme-content-inner\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Blake Ludwig \u201929, staff writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many college students, a \u201cHappy birthday!\u201d comes as a text message, a social media post or even a notification on their phone, but here at LVC, students receive something much more personal--a handwritten birthday card from the college\u2019s President, James MacLaren.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just over a year ago, MacLaren began personally writing birthday cards to students, creating a connection between the college\u2019s president and its student body.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEveryone has a birthday,\u201d MacLaren said. \u201cI just thought this was a nice way to show the college is thinking of you on this one day of the year.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cards that MacLaren writes have a meaning beyond a simple \u201cHappy Birthday!\u201d For MacLaren, the cards are a way to individually recognize students, instead of making them feel as if they are only a number on campus.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a small gesture that tries to recognize who we are as a campus; that values students as individuals,\u201d MacLaren said.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MacLaren said he chooses to write these cards by hand instead of sending a simple email or text message because it\u2019s more personal.&nbsp; LVC has around 1,600 full-time undergraduate students.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIT has a report that gives me student names and a list of birthdays,\u201d MacLaren said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the number of students at the college, MacLaren said writing the cards does not take up a large amount of his time; he said he takes him around 45 minutes a week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MacLaren hopes students appreciate the gesture and that the cards make their birthday a little more special.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI hope that they are pleased, and that it makes their day feel special,\u201d MacLaren said. \u201cI hope it brings a little bit of joy to them. That\u2019s the hope.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MacLaren sends these cards to student mailboxes during the academic year, and to home addresses during breaks. Students should check their mailbox around their birthday to receive a personal card from our president.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Blake Ludwig \u201929, staff writer For many college students, a \u201cHappy birthday!\u201d comes as a text message, a social media post or even a notification on their phone, but here at LVC, students receive <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2026\/09\/25\/a-personal-happy-birthday-from-president-maclaren\/\" title=\"A personal \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d from President MacLaren\">[...]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-campus-news","category-front-page","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17373"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17471,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373\/revisions\/17471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}