How to set up a structured alumni programme

One of our crucial objectives as university and career counsellors is to guide students in achieving their academic and career goals. And one of our most powerful resources for achieving this goal is school alumni.

Involving alumni in the university-application process offers valuable insight and mentorship, building connections that can significantly impact on a student’s future. It also bridges the gap between students and alumni who have successfully navigated similar pathways.

Alumni can provide guidance and advice on what worked for them, what didn’t, and the lessons they learned along the way, encouraging our students to develop resilience and perseverance. Fostering connections between high-school students and alumni can empower students to make informed career decisions and enrich their career-development experience.

How to involve alumni

While involving alumni has been a regular practice in our school, we wanted to streamline these engagements to support the counselling department. So we started two series with the alumni: “candid conversations” and “back to school”.

Candid conversations were discussions focusing on the alumnus’ journey from high school to university. Back-to-school sessions gave students an insight into the alumnus’ professional experience.

To facilitate these activities, we formed a student-led alumni club, appointing student ambassadors to serve as liaisons between the school and the alumni network. Students also started to record these events in the club’s newsletters, sharing them with entire school community.

Candid conversations

This series enables students to define and discuss their university objectives with alumni and learn from their experiences before, during and after their campus years. Alumni talk to students about how they selected their own university and undergraduate programmes, endorsing the concept of best-fit that is beyond academics and reputation – thus redefining what it means to be successful at university.

Being from India, alumni from our school studied at several Indian universities, as well as overseas. Thus they bring a diverse perspective of higher education, with insightful experiences of studying in-country and overseas.

Candid conversations also translated into panel discussions featuring alumni from various fields, who could engage with students about issues such as scholarships and financial aid, as well as the academic and non-academic opportunities offered to university students.

Alumni also participated in informational discussion about interviews, providing our students with valuable views and constructive feedback.

Back to school

The back-to-school series invited alumni working as professionals to deliver masterclasses and workshops. These gave students an insight into specific disciplines, encouraging them to ask probing questions.

These events also focused on direction of study rather than a specific destination, thus fostering holistic development and encouraging students to feel confident in their choices.

How to introduce alumni events

We began with just a small group of alumni, in order to test the process and build momentum. Identifying alumni who possessed diverse skills and had a range of academic and extracurricular achievements was important to ensure that conversations would be meaningful and interactive. This gave students an opportunity to understand the journey each alumnus had taken, and to develop a coherent understanding of essential skills for university applications.

To guarantee a successful programme, we established clear guidelines and protocols for engaging with alumni. These included ensuring that students understood the purpose and benefits of the programme, as well as setting boundaries around communication and expectations.

Through the alumni club and dedicated efforts of our student ambassadors, we created a database to store alumni information, making it easier to match students with relevant alumni contacts.

How to ensure success

By working to ensure that alumni narratives are relevant to every student, we’ve found that the alumni programme has had a positive impact on career counselling in our school.

The constantly evolving job market has meant that the alumni programme needs to stay relevant and to adapt to changing student and parent needs. Clear expectations from the alumni and students, transparency of the programme and a vision for creating these alumni connections have been crucial for success.

And we regularly evaluate the alumni programme, in order to measure its effectiveness in enhancing career counselling and providing valuable resources for students. Evaluation of the alumni engagements helped us assess the impact on student career outcomes, university selection and overall learning.

Connections built with alumni not only enhance the overall counselling experience but also foster a sense of community and support that extends beyond graduation day.