With thousands of its 150,000 living alumni spread across some 150 countries beyond the United States, the University’s reach is truly all over the map. As such, the University of Miami Alumni Association (UMAA) is going to ever-greater lengths to extend a global arm to grads near and far.

The goal—reconnect with international alumni through alumni clubs and chapters and continue the overall alumni mission abroad—is being realized through various strategic activities and programs.

The international itinerary for the coming year includes alumni outreach trips to Spain, England, Kuwait, and a few other countries, says Donna Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, executive director of the UMAA.

“I am thrilled that we now have initial resources to reach out to our 7,000 alumni living outside the U.S.,” she says. “We have hired Octavio Colominas, director of international alumni and parent relations, to identify and engage our alumni abroad. Our beginning challenge is to verify our international addresses.”

The UMAA kicked off a world tour with summer outreach to South America, where UM has around 700 alumni. President Donna E. Shalala and other key University members such as College of Engineering Dean James Tien, attended alumni and parent luncheons in Argentina, home to 58 alums, and Brazil, which has 120.

“The University of Miami, like the city in which it is located, has a large number of students and faculty from all over the hemisphere,” President Shalala said at the UM Center for Hemispheric Policy’s “Brazil-U.S. Forum” in São Paulo on June 23. “We hope not only to make new friends here in your wonderful country, but also to identify new Brazilian experts for the center’s activities, engage University of Miami alumni living in Brazil, and lay the groundwork for additional alliances between the University of Miami and Brazilian educational, scientific, medical, and other types of institutions.”

Luana Matos, A.B. ’00, volunteered in 2006 to be the international alumni contact for Brazil. “Also, I had the idea to work with accredited American high schools in Brazil to answer any questions prospective students might have and to motivate them to become ’Canes,” she says. Matos continues her leadership role online and was in São Paulo during June’s outreach. “The event in June was a great opportunity to realize other alumni are committed to contributing to UM’s efforts to reach out internationally,” she says. “President Shalala’s presence demonstrated that it’s a two-way street.”

UMAA found that 8 percent of the alumni Web site’s visitors for 2007-2008 hailed from a total of 165 countries outside the United States, including locations as remote as Iceland, Estonia, and Bangladesh. To meet increasing desire for communication, the UMAA also expanded Miami magazine’s distribution to Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, and Canada.