For many students, entering the real world can be both daunting and terrifying. Student Union Senate’s University Initiatives Committee (UI), looks to address these fears by creating stronger ties between students and recently-graduated alumni.

With well-established alumni-student programs in the School of Engineering and the Olin Business School, the UI committee seeks to implement a similar program for students in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“We want the students-alumni to have a four year relationship that will not be limited to St. Louis area. Also, we want this program to be available to students from all schools” Ceren Yalez, an international student serving on the UI Committee, wrote in an e-mail to Student Life.

One alumni-student relation opportunity that the business school currently offers is designed for first-semester freshmen. Likewise, the business school’s Weston Career Center often matches international students with alumni from their area to help them adjust to a new culture.

“[International students and alumni] work primarily in first semester they’re here,” said Joe Fox, the associate dean and director of MBA programs at Olin.

The Weston Career Center has also tried to create more career-oriented ties between students and alumni. One of its mentoring programs offers to link students interested in a field with University alumni working in the same sphere.

The program is intended to give students a glimpse into a field they are considering and receive general advice on how to apply for a job in that area.

“[This is] more about career direction and life direction than it is about academics,” Fox said.

While UI’s proposed program is similar to the business school’s in that it matches students and alumni by location and interest, the students on UI are hoping to create even more opportunities for students.

“Our program is pro-actively making opportunities for continuity in the Wash. U. community by setting up meetings between alumni and students. We hope that these meetings organically produce good relationships,” Alex Christenson, the chair of UI, wrote.

Although this committee project was just started, it has taken all kinds of results into account in coming up with the new plan.

“We investigated the alumni databases and alumni mentorship programs of other top tier schools and had meetings with Career Service and Alumni Development Office,” Yalez wrote.

The plan offered by UI is more structured than those already offered by the Career Center. It proposes lunches in 10 major cities with a ratio of 2:1 students to alumni who have been sorted by discipline using applications.

Despite the planning of the student group, those who work in the career centers were skeptical of the success of the program.

Mark Smith, the assistant vice chancellor and director of the Career Center, noted that it is very difficult to have a successful mentoring program. Those at Weston agreed.

“I think it can be helpful anywhere that its taken seriously and put in place for the right reasons. If you don’t have a serious purpose it becomes more like a social thing which is nice but not a compelling thing,” Fox said. “You need to put some time and labor into it.”

Nonetheless, the Career Center is considering adding a new job-shadowing program. Encouraged by the Center, students could meet with alumni through the Career Center, receive advice on how to get a job and communicate with people in their field of interest.

“I think sometimes students are hesitant to do that because it’s not something comfortable,” Smith said. “Students are like ‘oh I dunno that feels awkward.’”

UI plans to pave the way with student-alumni relationships, which according to Christenson, “have been lackluster in the past.”

“Our goal for this program is to have a pilot running by this summer. We want to observe how receptive the students and alumni volunteers are once they have gone through the first step in the program, and how it contributes toward our overall goal: making genuine and long-lasting relationships that will benefit both alumni and students,” Christenson said.

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Tags: alumni, Student Union

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