Engaging Alumni in the College Classroom
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Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development at Kalamazoo College has worked hard to overcome challenges such as curriculum alignment, travel resources, diversity of the local alumni population, and timing. She has created a cross campus partnership that includes the Provost and Alumni Relations, which has enables the Shared Passages to become a signature program on campus.
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Engaging Alumni in the College Classroom
- 1. Alumni Networking in the Classroom
- 2. Alumni: A Valuable Resource
- 3. Alumni Make Our Case for Us Career centers count on alumni professionals to advise students on networking, self- presentation, and industry-specific topics.
- 4. Alumni at Co-Curricular Events
- 5. Alumni in the Classroom “Crafting a Life” senior seminar includes three alumni panels and an informational interview with an alum professional
- 6. Career-Related Alumni Reflections • Five-year out alumni: When have you felt successful and why? How do you define success? • Ten-year out alumni: Describe a time you failed or were rejected. What did you learn from this experience?
- 7. “The alumni panels offered a really great perspective on life after K, especially having both the five-year panel and the ten-year panel to compare and contrast. Hearing the stories from people who were in our shoes and then successfully transitioned into post-grad life was really beneficial to me. It was comforting how honest each panelist was and how they explained parts of their story that they didn’t expect when they were seniors. I was able to reach out to individuals from both the five-year and ten- year panel after class to continue conversations.” ~ student, fall 2016 Alumni Panels in the Classroom
- 8. Connecting to Alumni through Wisr
- 9. Mentoring in the Classroom “The most impactful learning came from the alumni interviews. Reaching out cold to a stranger was pretty intimidating and I was skeptical that it would come to anything meaningful. However I was gladly proven wrong. The alumna with whom I connected was so kind and thoughtful and I learned from every conversation we had. Being able to talk to someone in a field I care about who has similar experiences to me, at least academically, and who understands what these next six months are going to be like was both reassuring and thought provoking. I not only learned a lot about what to expect after graduation but I also learned about the importance of networking and how to tap into the K network of alumni effectively and meaningfully. I’ll be keeping the idea of informational interviews in mind as I leave Kalamazoo and enter the job market.” ~ student, fall 2016
- 10. Challenges of Bringing Alumni into the Classroom • Alignment with curriculum: – advance planning with faculty on dates/topics – lack of complete control of message • Resources for travel: local industry and employment opportunities may not allow for wide range of professions • Diversity: local alumni base may not be as diverse as current student population • Timing: availability of alumni may be limited during business day • Staff time: scheduling, confirming, preparing, facilitating, following up all take time
- 11. Benefits of Bringing Alumni into the Classroom • “The experience of talking with someone other than professors or students provided a much-needed different perspective on life during and after Kalamazoo College. I look forward to speaking with her and other alumni for their guidance and advice.” • “After the interview, I was more confident with my choice in career.”
- 12. Benefits of Bringing Alumni into the Classroom • “Speaking with Riley confirmed many of my values surrounding my professional life, such as the importance of teamwork, hard work, dedication, and positivity. Hearing that I share many values in common with people in the industry that I hope to enter made me feel like I am on the right path, and this career will be a good fit for me.” • “We get told all the time that alumni are actually super excited to talk to us, but I personally didn't truly believe it until we had to do our alumni interviews and they were so excited to speak to us.”
- 13. How are alumni engaged in your classrooms? Joan Hawxhurst Kalamazoo College Center for Career and Professional Development joan.hawxhurst@kzoo.edu 269-337-7183
Editor's Notes
- In a labor market where up to 80 percent of openings are never posted, students’ career aspirations are dependent on making meaningful connections with professionals in their field, including alumni who are predisposed to help others from their alma mater. I think we all understand that the unique perspective of liberal arts alumni, who have both the lived experiences of attending an institution and succeeding in post-graduate pursuits, amplifies their expertise in the eyes of students and faculty alike. Our alumni can serve as bridges, in several different ways. For students, alumni might serve as bridges from college to potential career paths or to relevant experience. For faculty, they are bridges between the college’s past and present. When we bring in alumni as classroom speakers, panelists, and mentors, we can bridge the gap between academic theories and career development. At K we’ve been thinking a lot about how to better integrate career exploration and professional development into classroom settings. Today I’m going to talk about a senior seminar called “Crafting a Life” to offer examples of successful alumni engagement in classroom settings. I hope that this case study will offer some tangible takeaways for structuring classroom and online engagement for maximum benefit to both students and alumni.
- We all know that alumni are incredibly valuable sources of networks and knowledge. We are all great at welcoming them back to campus for Homecoming and as guest panelists for co-curricular events. This past weekend was Homecoming at K… I couldn’t help but include some shots of the various student/alumni connection events around campus.
- Alumni make our case for us. When I facilitate alumni visits to campus, frequently, without any prompting or prepping on my part, an alumni guest makes the same case for building relationships (a.k.a. networking), engaging in self-reflection, taking professional risks, and getting relevant experience that I would, but their words are so much more audible and relevant to students in the room than mine would be.
- There is something about the common crucible of a rigorous and experiential K College education—with its emphasis on study abroad, individualized research, career development, and civic engagement—that gives alumni gravitas in their interactions with current students. So we bring them to campus for networking receptions, evening panel discussions, practice interviews. What’s missing in all of these co-curricular interactions is a direct connection to faculty and classroom learning. In my experience, career development is usually kept separate from academics.
- What kind of impact could alumni have if they were actually integrated into classroom learning? For the past three years, I’ve been responsible for bringing alumni into a senior capstone seminar. The seminar, called “Crafting a Life,” is part of the college’s Shared Passages Program, which provides a sequential arc for first-year, sophomore, and senior seminars. The idea is that these seminars help make the whole MORE than the sum of its parts, allowing students to reflect on and integrate their college experiences into a coherent narrative. Offered since 2015, “Crafting a Life” is designed to guide 28 students through structured reflection, networking and skill-building to prepare them for post-graduate pursuits. In the course, students develop a contextual understanding of their own identity based on values, purpose and passion, and they clarify a personal philosophy upon which they can build a life. They consider psychological well-being, the value of a rich and thoughtful interior life, articulated core beliefs, social engagement and openness to the unexpected as elements of a well-considered life plan, all while practicing tangible job-readiness skills such as public speaking, meeting facilitation, elevator pitches, and interviewing.
- A key component of “Crafting a Life” is intergenerational learning. Three times during the term, panels of Kalamazoo College alumni professionals come to class to offer their own reflections and insights. Early in the term, as students are developing their own definitions of success, a panel of five-year-out alumni reflects on their experiences since graduation, speaking specifically to their own evolving definitions of success. Mid-term, as seminar students are considering the concepts of resiliency and grit, a panel of ten-year-out alumni shares experiences of failure or rejection. Near the end of the term, a panel of alumni with human resources expertise visits the class, offering insights into the job market and conducting mock interviews with questions that the students have considered and practiced.
- Here is one student’s reflection on the value of these alumni panels…
- In addition to the three classroom visits by alumni, each senior in the seminar conducts a series of informational interviews with one alumni professional whose career path is of interest. In the past, students used our college LinkedIn group to find alumni for this assignment. This year we are using our Wisr platform, which we’ve named the Career Mentoring Network and which has 1200 alumni on board, for students to identify a potential career mentor and set up three phone interviews. After each phone conversation, they write a reflective paper on the interview topic (values and compromise, boundaries and balance, and recovering from failure). I’ll hand out copies of the assignment—”Appendix D” as well as the rubric we’ve created to help them deepen their reflection on what they are learning through this connection. Their first reflection was due this past Tuesday, and most of our students were able to find and connect with an alum through the platform. Feedback from the students has been positive about how easy and attractive the platform is. We expect to see students develop lasting relationships with their alumni interviewee, continuing to seek advice and connections long after the term ends.
- Without exception, the alumni panels and informational interviews have provided rich learning opportunities as well as important networking connections for students in the seminar. Here is one student’s description of the “most impactful learning” in the entire seminar.
- If it were easy to bring alumni into the classroom, everyone would already be doing it. Over time, I’ve honed the invitation and preparation process, as well as the structure of the panels. I try: to place the alumni panels at relevant points in the syllabus, to select demographically and professionally diverse panelists, to offer sufficient advance detail about the content of the class sessions before the alumni visit, and to prepare students in advance to ask thoughtful and relevant questions.
- Students are easily able to articulate the benefits of learning from alumni in the classroom.
- Here are a couple more…
- The lasting relationships and practical learning outcomes derived from alumni engagement in our senior seminar can no doubt be replicated at your institutions (or maybe already is!). I’d be happy to take questions or hear your stories of alumni in the classroom.