College isn’t just a time for academic and intellectual exploration. It’s also a time for personal and social growth. The emotional connections fostered during such formative years often last a lifetime.
UC Davis alum Kirk DeClark knows this firsthand.
“My experience at UC Davis was phenomenal for so many reasons, and my best friends to this day, other than a couple of early childhood friends, are from UC Davis,” said DeClark, who graduated in 2001 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in economics and communication. “I really felt at home, and I just liked how the town seemed to be centered around the students.”
Though DeClark graduated nearly 25 years ago, he is still an Aggie at heart and continues to find ways to remain involved in the campus community.
As a member of the College of Letters and Science Dean’s Advisory Council, DeClark is part of a group of civic, business and education leaders drawn from the college’s alumni, donors, emeriti and friends. The group members act as ambassadors for the college and helps identify and recruit donor prospects, among other voluntary duties.
For DeClark, the role has given him an opportunity to help students and young alumni explore their intellectual curiosity and career prospects. Currently, he’s working with the college’s relations and development team to establish an endowment and launch a video series that catalogues the journeys of young alumni as they jump from the academic world to the professional.
“The young alumni area is really where I would like to see my small contributions help, in terms of helping new graduates develop and network,” DeClark said. “My endowment that I’m working towards setting up is focused on young alumni.”
The value of exploration and curiosity
Part of DeClark’s goal with his Aggie projects is to showcase that there’s no one set path to a specific career or professional goal. There are myriad paths and DeClark wants to illuminate them.
DeClark’s desire comes from personal experience. As an undergraduate student, he explored multiple majors, including chemistry and computer science, before finding his groove by double majoring in economics and communication during his junior year.
“That communication degree has really been useful to me over the years,” DeClark said. “It’s been applicable to the various jobs I’ve had, and I don’t think there’s any job that doesn’t benefit from good communication.”
After graduating, DeClark applied his education in different ways. He worked in tech sales, strategic communications, banking and the real estate and mortgage sector. All the while, he kept his education going. In 2014, he graduated from Columbia University with an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship.
Never one for the 9-to-5, DeClark eventually found the perfect fit as director of investments with LRG Investors, a commercial real estate investment and development company. DeClark wears many hats in the organization, including investor relations, fundraising, underwriting, and project entitlements and execution, among other functions. He’s been with the firm for over seven years now.
“Every day is different and there’s always a puzzle,” DeClark said. “That’s what I love about real estate more than anything else.”
An affinity for UC Davis
DeClark first learned about the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2017. Already a donor to the College of Letters and Science, he was invited to participate in the council and lend his perspective to their efforts.
While he didn’t join the council at that time, he stayed in touch with the college’s relations and development team, continuing to donate and attend college events. In winter 2024, he joined the council in an official capacity.
“It’s been great because I feel like we’re, as a group, tapped for advice on all sorts of subjects,” DeClark said. “We’re going through some challenging times and so we’re thinking about where funding is coming from, what we are offering as a college, how we market ourselves and building our alumni community.”
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