Director of Alumni Engagement Kelly Holdcraft spoke about possible new initiatives to connect with alumni through career-based initiatives at the Board of Visitors’ Committee on Alumni Relations meeting Thursday.
She explained to the committee the need to engage with alumni on a professional level, especially through services that allow the Alumni Association to connect with alumni online.
The possible new website will help connect College alumni who serve as vetted career coaches with other alumni and students, similar to a program used at Duke University. The coaches would be selected from different fields of work. As part of the service, the coaches would offer other alumni from the College a discounted price for their services.
In addition to this new career-coaching program, the website would allow the Alumni Association to host a series of webinars about various careers. The webinars would include small Google+ hangout sessions where alumni and students taking the courses will have a chance to talk with one another in a smaller setting that reflects the small class sizes that the College prides itself on maintaining.
The committee also emphasized other outreach efforts by Alumni Relations. This year, the group plans to coordinate and host 22 Yule Log ceremonies all over the country so that alumni can still participate in the campus tradition. They plan to continue spreading campus traditions by sending out “parties-in-a-box” to alumni chapters to celebrate Charter Day.
Earlier this year, the group also hosted ten Homecoming Game watch parties around the world, including a watch party in London.
Greetings from Alumni House! I am Kelly S. Holdcraft, Director of Alumni Engagement with the William & Mary Alumni Association. On Wednesday, I presented a plan for Alumni Engagement & Enrichment to our BOV Committee on Alumni Relations which included early information on professional engagement and enrichment opportunities for W&M Alumni.
There are several items listed in this article that need clarification and correction:
1. The College does not have plans to “launch a new online career help center that integrates both Alumni Relations and the Sherman and Gloria H. Cohen Career Center. ” Instead, the Williams & Mary Alumni Association plans to offer several new professional engagement & enrichment opportunities, starting in early 2014 that will provide information, services and connections for alumni.
2. The Alumni Association is currently researching a vetted career coaches program similar to those used by peer institutions (including Duke University). We have not committed to this type of program, but instead I used the opportunity of the meeting to discuss our ideas and solicit input from our BOV members.
3. The Alumni Association is currently creating a webinar program with scheduled hangouts, and as the reporter indicates above these hangouts will provide opportunities for alumni to “talk with one another in a smaller setting that reflects the small class sizes that the College prides itself on maintaining.”
My Office of Alumni Engagement is working hard to plan our Professional Engagement & Enrichment program and roll it out the W&M alumni community in early 2014. We are also excited for our now 22! Yule Log Celebrations across the country and looking forward to our 2014 Charter Day Birthday Parties, alumni service initiatives, and student scholarship drives.
If you would like to learn more or to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at 757.221.1172 or ksholdcraft@wm.edu or Kensey Wheeler, Asst. Director at 757.221.1171 or kewheeler@wm.edu.
GO TRIBE!