Alumni Perspectives: A new approach.

June 24, 2012Alumni Trendingalumni, Alumni Relations, alumni trendingAlumni Trending Leave a comment

Alumni Trending Guest blogger:
Ryan P. Catherwood, @RyanCatherwood

What tools, digital or otherwise, will your university supply alumni to make them stronger professionals? Wouldn’t it bode well for our Annual Funds if our universities could be linked as the catalyst to professional success?

Ask your alumni how they achieved professional success, most will say something like, “by building my network, or course!” Many would reflect on a relationship developed through the university and/or alumni network as crucial to getting the right opportunity.

And we all know that networking is the key to career growth. As such, most universities offer plenty of networking events in the form of on-campus reunions or regional alumni chapter events. To complement these events, most of our institutions offer access to alumni-only databases made possible by companies like Blackbaud, who supply the fundraising/recordkeeping software at W&L. We call our database “Colonnade Connections,” and it’s searchable by major, class year, industry, city, state, etc. Most universities supply all the do-it-yourself tools for networking, but then we pat our alumni on the back and wish them good luck.

How can we continue to guide our alumni as they navigate the uncertain roadways towards career success? And how can we provide assistance on the web, now one of the first places professionals turn when searching for jobs. The answer, I believe, is by replicating the conversations that occur during an “informational interview” and placing these discussions up on the web for everyone to see.

An informational interview is a specific type of networking event. It’s more intimate in nature and typically includes a young professional and established professional. Often held at a local coffee shop, the young professional attempts to gain industry/career advice from the established professional who was in their position once before. An occasional byproduct of these meetings is that the young professional impresses the older professional and ends up getting a referral or considered for a job at a later date.

The conversations that occur during informational interviews are very powerful. At Washington and Lee we believe this form of alumni-supplied content is part of adding a next level to a digital engagement strategy. We’re able to showcase an “expertise in networking” while presenting a new approach to “continued education.”

Alumni content contributors (we call them Alumni Guides) help steer the web-based conversations that occur as a result of their post. They also might ultimately help steer the professional direction of a young alumnus’s career.

For their effort Alumni Guides receive professional notoriety as these posts are promoted throughout the university’s web channels and social media platforms. But the most common reason for spending the time to write an editorial? Authoring an Alumni Perspectives is a way to give back to the institution. It’s good to offer alumni many different types of giving options.

The new Alumni Perspectives editorials debuted on a completely redesigned W&L alumni website in early March 2012.

Follow Ryan P. Catherwood, Asst. Director of Digital Communications & Social Media, @RyanCatherwood,

Establishing Traditions

March 10, 2012Alumni Trendingalumchat, alumni, Alumni Relations, highered, TraditionsAlumni Trending One comment

Spring is getting closer, and we Midwesterners are realizing that there might be a “true spring” this year that begins as early as March. For a growing, relatively young university in the heart of suburban Detroit (adjacent to Chrysler headquarters and The Palace of Auburn Hills, home of the NBA Pistons) as of late March has fueled excitement for alumni rooting their alma mater during March Madness 3 of the past 7 years and it seems making the 64 bracket is becoming an expected ritual. More recently March has also brought the beginning of a new alumni tradition and community outreach: spreading the love of reading.

Oakland University is growing. One of the fifteen public universities in the state of Michigan, Oakland has seen enrollment growth each year for fourteen consecutive years. During that time OU also made the leap from division 2 Athletics to division 1 with a new Mascot and recently added a Medical School this fall.

Oakland is young! With the Charter Class in 1963 graduating 125 students, Oakland now has enrollment at 19,000 and is establishing traditions with the ability to build its identity and create its brand.

Oakland is unique in that a majority (2/3 of the nearly 90,000 OU alumni) lives and works within an hour radius of the Rochester campus.

During my time as coordinator of the Alumni Admissions Ambassador Program we collaborated and created several opportunities for alumni to serve on campus and in their communities by sharing their OU story in the recruitment and yield of future students. One particular program that we began tied into our community’s need to spread the love of reading. Reading to elementary students by athletes, celebrities, and community leaders isn’t new, but creating a program that aligns our institution’s priorities and objectives by serving the community is a rich new tradition. We created the Grizzly Story Time Visit Program, which appreciates our history and envisions our future.

In collaboration with Alumni Relations (engaging alumni teachers) and Undergraduate Admissions (building the university brand with the mascot) we launched the program after our book (Hello, Grizz) was penned; a creative story of the Mascot taking a campus tour for the first time. What better way to serve our community than by reaching out to our alumni who are teachers or principals and inspiring the next generation in our schools. What better university branding than a sit down story with our institution’s Mascot and what more meaningful alumni engagement than going to your alum’s place of work and providing an opportunity for involvement and recognition.

We launched the program in March 2010 by visiting 10 schools. In March 2011 we visited 30. In 2012 the number is growing with thousands of elementary students being impacted each year. We welcome the sign of spring with a new community outreach and alumni tradition.

Follow Luke Fleer, associate director of Alumni Engagement at Oakland University, @lukefleer