Final Year – Time to Refocus

  You’re entering your final year and it’s an electric time of year. Motivations are high, there’s anticipation of the increased intensity and aspirations for grades are set.  It seems to be the pinnacle of all your hard work – graduation, the final hurdle. But I implore you to pause and question – is the […]

Future Alumni Trends: Alumni Angel Investing with Nanyang Angelz

In this special blog series, I will highlight some innovative trends in alumni engagement. No better place to start then to dive in with Nanyang Angelz. This is an  interview with Co-Founders Ivan Wei Kit Yong and Sam Lee. I had the pleasure to meet Ivan and Sam a few years ago and from there […]

Share, Care and Dare in Alumni Relations: staying the course

It’s 2:30am on the 12th of March 2020. My husband woke me to detail the news that the US was planning an imminent closure of their international borders. He figured Canada would follow. At 3:00am we booked flights to Canada for a few weeks to wait out this unfolding situation. A few weeks turned into […]

Want to energize your alumni work in 2023? Get that sparkle by starting here!

Alumni relations is a joy. Whenever I speak to alumni-facing professionals, they share their joy connecting with alumni. It’s satisfying, meaningful work. Sometimes, it comes at a cost.  Often, it’s a personal cost.  Alumni engagement is a hectic, always-on activity. More than a can-do attitude, you need a level of energy dialed to 10 (or […]

4 Questions to Embed a Networking Mindset for Your Alumni – and for Impact

Networking is more than mingling at an alumni reunion. In the Creating Connection Webinar hosted and organized by Aluminati, earlier this week, I navigated a journey of building a networking mindset for the next generation of students, graduates, and alumni. I started the event by asking the simple question: Why do we want our students […]

Reflection: A Welcome Activity for Alumni Relations!

Curious about The Alumni Way traits? While the book presents the traits of  Reflection – Curiosity – Passion – Generosity for alumni directly, this series of weekly blog posts focuses on how they can be adapted for energizing, effective alumni relations practice.  Earlier this month, I dusted off  the suitcases for my first work related international business trip […]

3 reasons we need Global Alumni Volunteers

It was a sold-out crowd in Manchester, UK at the end of February 2020. I was honoured to give the keynote address to the CASE Working with Volunteers event. The session was entitled: Why Do We Need Global Alumni Volunteers More Than Ever? The 3 reasons (this is the 30 second version!) 1- Encourage Storytelling […]