ENGAGE. MATCH. MEASURE.

Merging Alumni Relations & Career Services Playbook

CONTRIBUTORS This ebook was created through conducting interviews with the following industry experts:

Ryan CatherwoodAssistant Vice President for Alumni and Career Services

Longwood University

Dan LugoVice President for Collegeand Student Advancement

Colby College

Michelle Marks-HookAssistant Director for Student/Alumni Engagement Programs

University of Rochester

Reyna SundCareer and Alumni Relations Director

Ashford University

Joe TestaniAssistant Dean and Executive Director

University of Rochester

CONTENTSIntroduction 3

Why Collaborate 4

Aligning Alumni Relations & Career Services 7

Marketing Initiatives 10

Creating Career and Volunteer Opportunities 12

Takeaways from Early Implementation 16

Conclusion 22

Placement rates and alumni engagement are two pillar metrics colleges and universities use to measure themselves each year. A high placement rate proves students are equipped with the career competencies required by employers, while alumni engagement impacts endowment and the assets available to an institutionin a given year.

For decades, career services and alumni relations have operated as sole entities in order to increase placement, career readiness, alumni engagement and donations. But in the past five years, career services and alumni relations professionals have leveraged the mutual interest between students and alumni to connect with oneanother, and are forming cross-team partnerships to drive higher outcomes.

This e-book will examine the processes by which schools are implementing collaboration between career services and alumni relations, how both departments complement one another, and the student success and alumni engagement outcomes fostered by this collaboration.

The majority of universities that areout there are competing in this verydeep pool of talent, and a way todifferentiate their talent and thoseopportunities is through their alumni.”

-Joe Testani, University of Rochester

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INTRODUCTION

WHY COLLABORATE?

SECTION 1

At colleges and universities such as Longwood University, Colby College, University of Rochester and Ashford University, career services and alumni relations directors have recognized they can foster more student-to-alumni connections and alumni volunteeringopportunities by integrating the two offices.

Alumni engagement metrics often suffer due to the fact that young alumni feel there are no opportunities for them to give back besides donating financially. But by laying alumni volunteer opportunities over the career services narrative, institutions ensure young alumni feel needed and keep them engaged until they’re one dayready to make financial contributions.

Alumni relations is helped by career servicesbecause it gives it a message focus and it gives it more ability to impact theuniversity’s key measurables.”

-Ryan Catherwood, Longwood University

WHY COLLABORATE?

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Connecting alumni to the career services mission also maximizes the office’s ability to provide relevant career practice and guidance, and experiential learning opportunities such as internships and co-ops.

Testani notes that the Rochester alumni base acts as an extension of the center, representing new and emerging industries and tailoring advice and support to students’ unique career interests. By engaging these alumni, University of Rochester is able to educate students on available opportunities in a number of different industries, as well as help them transition into a new location or company becausethey have an alumni connection with relevant experience.

We believe that this career mission, post-graduate planning and mentoring providesthe best and most fertile territory for us toenhance the engagement of our alumni and bring in alumni who believe in paying it forward by offering internships, jobsand networking.”

-Dan Lugo, Colby College

WHY COLLABORATE?

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In addition, Colby College Vice President for College and Student Advancement Dan Lugo recognizes the merging of alumni relations and career services under one umbrella has facilitated an increase in student-to-alumni mentoring opportunities as well as a university professional community where alumni magnify the educationefforts of career services.

ALIGNING ALUMNIRELATIONS & CAREER SERVICES

SECTION 2

How do you take two offices that have largely operated independentof one another and create an environment where both staffs can work as a unit?

“The vision is, how do we create a completely hybrid organizationwhere our postgraduate and career services teams feel just as adept at identifying philanthropy projects and planning alumni events,” Lugo says.

Ultimately, what schools integrating this fusion strive for is the ability to have the alumni relations team participate in career related initiatives and vice versa.

Ryan Catherwood, assistant vice president for Alumni and CareerServices, and his team at Longwood University are entering year two of the merging of alumni relations and career services. Through hisexperience, he’s found that developing economies between the twooffices and defining a clear mission has fostered unity.

At Longwood, each staff member on the career side has a partner onthe alumni side who they can work with to figure out collaborationopportunities. For example, the contact who handles career affairs and events associated with career services is aligned with the alumni on campus events contact who plans reunions and giving days.

ALIGNING ALUMNI RELATIONS & CAREER SERVICES

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In addition, the regional engagement coordinator who’s heading upvolunteer efforts is aligned with the associate director of CareerServices to jointly develop volunteer opportunities for alumni.

Each of the alumni relations and career services professionalsCampusTap has spoken to in researching this development haspointed to the success that’s been driven from defining a joint mission from the start. That mission is dependant on theindividual initiatives of each university, but it should be mutually defined by representatives from alumni relations and career services.

At Longwood, Catherwood explains clarity of mission has providedstrength in team and allowed both offices to think as one team spread across two locations.

ALIGNING ALUMNI RELATIONS & CAREER SERVICES

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For the future of alumni relations, the optimization of connection with career servicesreally gives the whole construct more significance. It gives the ability to tie that thread from the first day of college all the waythrough graduation, and that there’s a network there that’s available for help.”

-Ryan Catherwood, Longwood University

MARKETING INITIATIVES

SECTION 3

MARKETING INITIATIVESOnce a cross-team strategy andstructure has been formalized, alumni relations and career services roll out their joint initiative to students and alumni to raise awareness and createbuy-in.

Reyna Sund, Career and AlumniRelations director at Ashford University, where career services, alumni relations and employer relations is nearing full integra-tion, noted their outreach strategy relied heavily on events. Being an online institution, Sund and her team identified top markets where alumni reside and began hosting events in those locations.

Sund has recognized students andalumni find these networking experiences more beneficial and foster organic peer mentoring relationships because students and alumni are able to identify with one another through commonalities, whether it’s major-specific or an alum is working in an industry a student is interested inpursuing.

Through marketing University ofRochester’s alumni relations and careerservices alignment, Testani found careerservices offerings and capabilitiesneeds to be embedded into the fabric ofthe university. Beyond career servicesofficers, the advancement team must becognizant of the different ways alumnican give back and market them. Eventhough advancement may originallyreach out to an alum for a separateengagement opportunity, they need tobe able to promote alumni volunteeringopportunities through career services as well.

“Little by little, our goal hasbeen to start generating energy on the ground so that we can get those interested in volun-teering to keep the flow of energy going without us on theground.” - Reyna Sund, Ashford

University

Ashford’s events incorporate careerprogramming to emphasize the fact thatcareer services offerings are available toalumni forever. Event programmingprovides engagement opportunities andways for alumni to continue to get careersupport. By including students at these events, Ashford is also grooming future engaged alumni as well.

Testani also stresses the importance of managing expectations on all fronts to ensure satisfaction. He recommends:

• Having the appropriate staffing

• Showing gratitude and appreciation for the involvement of alumni

• Recognizing alumni in front of students to show them “this is what we expect of you”

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CREATING CAREER & VOLUNTEEROPPORTUNITIES

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CREATING CAREER &VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIESThe impetus for joint partnerships between alumni relations andcareer services is to drive higher engagement by providing a wide range of volunteer opportunities and better prepare students for their careers by exposing them to alums with relevant experience and connections.

At institutions such as Longwood University, Colby College, University of Rochester and Ashford University, the early returns prove collaboration spurs the desired results.

25%Internships sourced by alumni

and parent referralsColby College 2015-2016

Establishing a broadly engaged alumni base correlates to increased career opportunities for students, so the first step in creating job shadowing, internship and job postings sponsored by alumni is to create a variety of volunteer outlets.

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2013 2014 2015 2016

Students Utilizing Counseling & Mentoring

Placement in Stronger Graduate Schools

Internships from Alumni & Parents

Job Placement Rates

CREATING CAREER &VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIESWith technology improving accessibility, decentralized alumni can share their experiences and provide guidance to students remotely through webinars, virtual coffee chats and online forums. The prospect of digital volunteering enables institutions to initiate yet another form of alumni participation: microvolunteering.

Traditionally, alumni relations offices would have to depend on activating large populations of alumni in broader programming such as giving days and on-campus networking events. But digital opportunities allow institutions to engage alumni in sessions and events that are more convenient for them. They cut out the hassle ofcoordinating travel and housing for alumni, and give colleges and universities the ability to involve alumni in programming year-round.

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CREATING CAREER &VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

The most consistent trend in developing new ways for alumni toengage with their institution is through leveraging their time andtalent. Playing to time and talent allows colleges and universities tobring alumni back to campus for networking events, paneldiscussions, executive-in-residence programs and mentoring.

Alumni relations and career services professionals collaborating with one another have all pointed out that the time and talentapproach increases young alumni engagement. Ultimately, time and talent leads to greater success nurturing the third “T”: Treasure.

Testani and his colleague, Assistant Director for Student/Alumni Engagement Programs Michelle Marks-Hook, state that young alumni who give back through career-related initiatives give back financially once they’re in the position to do so.

To fully maximize alumni availability and expertise, institutions like Longwood University are providing digital volunteeringopportunities as well.

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TIME + TALENT = TREASURE

CREATING CAREER &VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Digital and microvolunteering also allows alumni relations and career services to cater to career interests of each individual student. While subject matter associated with traditional career programming is developed to attract a broad audience of students, digital and microvolunteering ensures institutions appeal to each student by matching them with alumni working in more niche industries.

As alumni relations and career services work together to provide a variety of involvement opportunities they’re able to identify where specific alumni can be most valuable. Depending on their experi-ence, network and interests, alumni can participate in speaking opportunities, volunteer their time for mentoring, and ultimately sponsor job shadowing, internship and job opportunities.

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TAKEAWAYS FROM EARLY IMPLEMENTATION

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While the colleges and universities merging alumni relations andcareer services are still in the early stages of implementation, return on investment is already apparent and it validates the undertaking of such an initiative.

In the next few pages, we’ll share some key takeaways from each of the institutions CampusTap interviewed for the benefit of this e-book.

SECTION 1

What Sund has noticed as she and her staff continue integrating is that outreach to students and alumni around career initiatives leads to greater affinity for the university. The next step for Ashford is to dedicate specific staff to employer outreach and formalizing a process for identifying how many alumni work at a specific organization and which of those alumni are hiring managers who can impact decisions regarding the hiring of students.

Sund’s advice to other colleges and universities undertaking similarintegrations: “The first thing you need to realize is that it’s all connected. You can never think that the work you’re doing to integrate and connect is going to be somewhat of a chore to identify how things can align themselves. It all makes complete and utter sense, because anything that you do for a student is going to be remembered from a student perspective, and that will impact how they participate and re-engage as an alum.”

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ASHFORD UNIVERSITY

At Colby, Lugo notes that the career center has evolved into an everyday hub for students to gain career guidance and education on available opportunities. Combining the efforts of alumni relations and career services has created “the most robust Colby professionalnetwork by giving those alumni that want to be engaged direct access to students for mentoring and networking opportunities.”

“Everyone understands the power of networking, and if that access-way to a powerful level of a mentor network goes through career advancement and services, we’re going to get students exploring their interest earlier,” he said. “We’re going to get them thinking about meaningful internship opportunities earlier, and the data shows that the earlier you start, the more career choices you’ll have.”

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COLBY COLLEGE

SECTION 1

Student and alumni engagement has increased at Longwood due to career services and alumni relations aligning through the career narrative that enables students to think of alumni as part of an outer inner circle of people who are reachable just beyond theirparents, peers and faculty. Additionally, Catherwood speaks to the importance of activating alumni to create content that educates students on the career mapping process, what a valuable connection is, how to leverage connections to gain an internship, and how to build on an internship experience to get a job.

He also emphasizes the role of data and taking advantage of that to create a structured process. Moving forward in year two of Longwood’s implementation, Catherwood and his colleagues are thinking about students as touch points similar to prospects in a sales funnel. They’re deploying sales-oriented techniques to track students who visit the career center in order to move them along the career narrative and match them with alumni. The other aspect of theinitiative is to apply volunteer roles to a constituent database forvarious career-related initiatives. This allows Longwood to review alumni attendance records and use that engagement to reach out to alumni and assign them to relevant opportunities.

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LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY

SECTION 1

Regarding career competencies, Testani and Marks-Hook note that students recognize the value more when alumni “bring life and color to them.”

“Alumni bring relevance and reality to the competencies,” Testani said. “We engineer natural interactions, but the reality is we’re creating emphasis points on certain topics by positioning alumni who can talk on those topics in an expert way.”

Rochester’s implementation also raises a crucial point, which is thatinstitutions may not have difficulty getting alumni volunteers engaged but may have trouble matching alumni up to the right type of opportunity based on their interests, background and availability.

“You have to be really smart about how you vet and match people up to the right experience as alumni,” Testani explained. “We want to create a specific type of experience for our students where we can train them to take advantage of opportunities to network with the right alumni.”

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UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

CONCLUSIONThe alignment of alumni relations and career services is still in its developing stages, but the use cases presented in this e-book prove connecting students and alumni through the career narrative increases engagement by providing a broader range of volunteeropportunities in addition to fostering career opportunities such as internships and jobs for students.

Additional ResourcesCampusTap Blog

Ashford University CASE PresentationNACE BlogCASE Blog

HigherEd Live

AboutCampusTap provides private career networking and alumni mentoringcommunities to help students and recent graduates launch successfulcareers. With CampusTap, you can recruit alumni in meaningful mentoropportunities, easily match them to students and alumni with similar

professional interests, and measure engagement.

Visit www.thecampustap.com to learn more.

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