Seeking connection
By Rebecca Beyer (CAS’04) | Published July 2025
Alicia (Kovarsky) Miller (CGS’07, CAS’09) had been participating in Boston University alumni activities in the Chicago area for nearly a decade when the BU Alumni Association first approached her about taking on a leadership role in the city’s network—a volunteer position heavy on event planning and coordination.
Miller, who had just planned her own wedding 5,000 miles and an ocean away in Sicily, enthusiastically agreed.
“I had nothing to plan,” she laughs, recalling her thinking.
Since becoming cochair of the Chicago Alumni Network in 2022, Miller is always planning something: paella-making classes, shuffleboard competitions, Cubs and White Sox games, Beanpot-watching parties.
“I love the community,” she says. “We plan events, they go really well, you see people having a good time and catching up—it’s exciting.”
For Miller, who began her post-BU career as a Disney tour guide, the work also comes naturally. A self-described introvert with “a lot of extrovert tendencies,” she enjoys seeing familiar faces at events and connecting with alumni who are new to Chicago or to the network.
“When my battery gets low, I need human interaction,” she says.
Miller grew up in the suburbs north of Chicago and fell in love with Boston and BU while visiting colleges in the city.
“It was summertime, and I walked over to the Charles River and to Marsh Plaza, seeing the train go by—it was so beautiful; I was captivated by it,” she says. “And it is an actual campus. I will argue to the death on this.”
She was accepted into the College of General Studies and eventually majored in environmental earth science. She especially enjoyed her minerology and sedimentology classes for which she went on field outings collecting rock and sediment samples in New England and along the coast. She considered continuing her studies in a master’s program but instead accepted a “bucket list” job at Walt Disney World in Florida, where she eventually led private tours.
Miller had long been a Disney fan—she was on vacation there for spring break with her parents when she received news of her acceptance to BU and had spent the second semester of her junior year teaching kids about endangered species at Animal Kingdom. After graduation, she became a guest relations hostess and eventually a VIP tour guide, a job in which she spent several hours a day with parents and their children; once, she guided Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek and his family around the park.
Working at Disney day in and day out, the place “almost loses its magic,” she says. But seeing it with kids who were visiting the park for the first time made it “super special.”
In 2012, Miller decided to return home to Chicago, eventually transitioning to an accounting role at Pentasource, a global sourcing company. She now heads up operations for the outfit.
Although she doesn’t use her earth science degree professionally, as the mother of an infant son, Miller jokes that she is “so ready for the rock collection.”
Miller kept in touch with friends she made as a student at BU but didn’t participate much in alumni activities until she returned to Chicago. She enjoyed the connections she made at events—including ones that led to beach volleyball invitations and mutual travel recommendations—and also appreciated the content.
“It was like, ‘This is a really cool experience that I’m getting because I went to BU,’” she explains. “I wanted to be involved.”
Miller and her cochairs, Emma Brown (Questrom’17) and Elizabeth Nelson (CAS’23), plan about six events each year, trying as best they can to support alumni-led businesses in the process: the paella-making event, for instance, was held at a venue owned by a restaurant company at which several alumni work; the Beanpot party each year is held at Piece Pizzeria and Brewery, founded by Bill Jacobs (CAS’83); and Kirsten Goede (CFA’90), creates special BU-themed pins that have now spread to other BU Alumni Networks.
There are about 5,000 alumni in the Chicago area; the alumni network’s events are usually capped at around 100 people and regularly sell out—many have a waiting list. The work is rewarding, Miller says, especially when she sees alumni who previously didn’t know each other become friends.
“It’s having a network of people whom you can relate to—talking about Comm Ave or Cornwall’s,” she says. “I can’t talk to my husband about Comm Ave!”
Miller says her time at BU helped form “the core of who I am.”
“The whole BU experience brought us together,” she says. “So much of life changes as you grow—your career might not have anything to do with your degree—but I’m still made up so much of who I was. Those classes, those experiences. I would not be where I am had I not gone to BU.”
Regional Networks provide many opportunities to stay connected with the BU alumni community through online channels and in-person activities. See how you can get involved!