By Meredith Daw Associate Vice President Executive Director, Career Advancement Successful engagement plays a key role in: - Student career outcomes - Leveling playing field for low-income students - Alumni institutional affinity and involvement

1. Wisr’s Role in a Successful Engagement Strategy
Meredith Daw
Associate Vice President
Executive Director, Career Advancement

2. Strategic Landscape:
Impactful Engagement More Important Than Ever
• Successful engagement plays a key role in:
o Student career outcomes
o Leveling playing field for low-income students
o Alumni institutional affinity and involvement

3. Wisr: All-in-One Tool
• Provides one-stop shop to engage both students and alumni
• Offers unique career resource for students of all levels
• Easily sustains alumni engagement after graduation

4. Career Services: Student Engagement Strategy
• Keep students engaged for full lifecycle
• Begin building student career networks as early as possible
• Provide simple, user-friendly pathway for students to find mentors

5. The Engagement Lifecycle:
Far More Than Just Four Years
Proud
Alum
Current
Student
Incoming
Student
Prospective
Applicant
First
Exposure
(High School
or Earlier)
• Relationship with career services should start early and continue after graduation
• Wisr platform allows for sustained engagement at critical points in the cycle

6. Early Student Engagement
Leads to Best Career Outcomes
Traditional Model
ResourcesInvested
Early Intervention Model
ResourcesInvested
Year in School Year in School
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
25% of summer interns
have already received full-
time offers before 4th year
• Wisr allows students to start networking very early
• Investing in early student preparation pays strong dividends

7. Wisr: Key Resource for Low-Income Students
• Wisr levels playing field for students without family connections
• Platform allows students to connect with mentors who share their background
• Alumni opt-in makes networking easy and removes approach anxiety

8. Wisr Community for First-Generation Students

9. Maximizing Alumni Involvement
• Wisr allows UChicago to tap into a new pool of alumni volunteers
• All alumni can participate regardless of where they live and how much time
they have to volunteer

10. Alumni Engagement Pays Off
• More alumni engagement leads to:
o More mentors for students
o More leads for jobs and internships
o More institutional affinity
o More philanthropic gift prospects

11. LinkedIn Integration a Major Value-Add
• Easy sign-up process brings in more alumni
• Encourages students to make their own LinkedIn
• Provides data for alumni relations initiatives

12. Strong Results from Wisr Pilot
• 2,500+ alumni engaged
• 1,000+ students engaged within just three months
• 99% “thumbs up” ratings from students and alumni

13. Questions?
Meredith Daw
daw@uchicago.edu