One element of providing career advising services to postsecondary students is engaging program alumni. This is because alumni can benefit from ongoing advising even after they graduate from college, can offer helpful insights into improving program operations,
and may activate their own networks to provide additional resources to their program alma mater.
As part of NCAN’s Career Advising for College Students project funded by the Scheidel Foundation, NCAN interviewed several of our members about their work in this area. We also hosted
a webinar on this topic with presenters from Chicago Scholars, iMentor, and KIPP Forward. This is a summary of what we learned.
Continue to Provide Services
NCAN members have a deep commitment to the success of the students they serve and articulated that they stand ready to provide services regardless of when a student officially “graduated” from their program. As Chicago Scholars likes to say, “Once a scholar,
always a scholar.”
Some of the career advising services members continue to provide to their postsecondary alums include:
Ongoing networking opportunities so alums can connect and cultivate community, social capital, and their personal support systems.
Access to job opportunities, career fairs, and career mentoring. These opportunities may be posted on an alumni-specific area of a member’s website.
Advice to help alumni articulate and refine their personal brand through resume writing and LinkedIn profile building/improvement.
General career advising services, which may be provided by the program itself or through partner organizations.
Mental health and wellness supports, which are in high demand.
Work with Current Postsecondary Students
Program alumni are a great source of knowledge and opportunities for current students, in part because they are relatable role models. Some of the ways alumni engage with current students include:
Participation in career panels during which current students can learn more about a specific career or organization. This type of opportunity also helps hone the public speaking and other professional skills of program alums.
Acting as mentors, career coaches, and advisers, as well as offering informational interviews for current college students.
Designing and delivering programming that is entirely alumni-driven, in addition to regularly planned advising activities.
Involve Alumni at the Organizational Level
Some programs involve alumni in the general operation of the organization. For example:
Several programs engage alumni as full voting members of their board of directors.
Some alums are involved in efforts to recruit both new students and corporate partners to the program.
Alumni may provide input on program and service improvement.
Alumni may be actively involved in fundraising efforts through general donations and donations targeted toward student scholarships.
Track Alumni and Program Outcomes
For some organizations, a reason to engage alumni is to try to gauge the overall success of their program.
Staying in touch with alums and encouraging them to read newsletters, open emails, and respond to surveys about their current whereabouts can be challenging. Open rates for and responses to emails can be low, so some programs provide incentives, such
as gift cards, to encourage alumni to open email newsletters and surveys.
Members are eager to share information and opportunities for engagement with alumni. They are also eager to collect their contact information, employment status, income level, and interest in being engaged with the program. Our members know that even
with all the support they are providing to college students, there are still many barriers these students may face upon graduation. The supports our members design for their alumni are to help them navigate those obstacles and navigate the path to
a satisfying career.
Engaging alumni is time-consuming work. But the payoff, according to NCAN members already doing this work, is worth it. To learn more about how NCAN members are engaging alumni in career advising, you can review the recording of this webinar by visiting the NCAN webinar archives and selecting the June 8, 2022 recording (an NCAN member login is required).
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