Continuing and lifelong education for alumni with traditional and new programs is generating a lot of interest as an opportunity for engagement and connection. Continuing the discussion that I started here on the Impactrics blog, I shared some ideas about this topic including options for starting book clubs, offering podcasts or webinars, and other formats…
Author: Kathy Edersheim
Graduation and Commencement It is that exciting time of year for many schools and universities when you will be welcoming a new generation of alums! Yes, commencement should live up to its name and be the beginning of a lifelong relationship for the newest graduates with your school. As new graduates are eager and excited…
On March 22, Jeffrey Selingo published an article in The Atlantic which said …Now a third wave in education and training has arrived, argue economists, educators, and workforce-development officials. The level of preparation that worked in the first two waves—adding more time to education early in life—does not seem sufficient in the 21st-century economy. Instead…
Asking questions that lead to insightful and actionable answers If you could ask your alumni board president one question, what would it be? We are dependent on asking questions for many reasons from generating big ideas to evaluating the success of events to understanding the interests of alumni and more. Yet, how often do we…
Following the annual Educational Travel Conference sponsored by the Educational Travel Consortium last week, it is a good time to consider the purpose and the impact of affinity travel programs. We live in an age of travel – more people travel more often and to more places than ever before. To address that interest, more…
Alumni Relations for Today Alumni relations has gotten into a groove but that may not be such a good thing. Offering the same programs, following the same procedures as last year (or the past five years) may not work so well in the new era of hyper-connectivity and constant entertainment. I was reminded that alumni…
In the never-ending quest to engage alumni (and friends), there seems to be growing interest in affinity or shared interest groups. Considering that, how do you go about forming a successful, sustainable group that has impact? Check out the story of the Yale Alumni Non-profit Alliance at: Case Study
With information from over 50 institutions, data from the Impactrics Alumni Relations Assessment provides new insight into trends in alumni engagement. Every institution should consider its own priorities when determining what areas to focus on in 2018 however it can be helpful to understand what others are doing. In brief, keeping in touch with alumni…
The results from the Impactrics Assessment are in: successful alumni organizations offer alumni and students networking opportunities, career support, and mentoring programs. The good news is that it is easier than ever to provide these services with one of many software products now on the market. Having just added @Tassl and @Alumnifire, there are now…
September 11, 2017
Kathy Edersheim
More and more we hear the question: What makes a three- or four-year college education costing tens of thousands of dollars worthwhile – preparing students for a career or providing an opportunity to explore new ideas and learn how to think? At first, the answer seems to be that education must serve both these purposes…