Students will now have the opportunity to connect with alumni in a much easier way.
DePauw's alumni gateway, or alumni directory, will open for students today to support students in their career development, according to the Office of Alumni Engagement and Kathryn F. Hubbard Center for Student Engagement.
As a result of this change, all students will have individual permanent accounts which will let them search 30,000 alumni and strengthen connections with alumni.
"Our alumni have a wealth of experience, and they want to help students, but sometimes are unsure of the best ways to be of service," said Raj Bellani, the dean of experiential learning and career planning, in a press release. "These new initiatives will provide students with greater insights, experiences and opportunities to develop their professional networks before they ever leave campus."
The directory will include all living alumni's information such as name, graduation year, major, greek chapter, current city of residence, email address and occupation.
"It is a searchable database for students," said Steven Setchell, the associate vice president for alumni engagement.
Students can search alumni by simple search or advanced search. Simple search allows students to find particular alumni by entering the name and class year, while advanced search allows students to find alumni that meet specific criteria by entering more detailed information such as major, occupation and company.
The Office of Alumni Engagement and Hubbard Center collaborated to create this program after learning that other schools' alumni offices and career offices worked closely together to support students.
Previous programs such as Graduate of Last Decades (GOLD), the Sophomore Institute and informational interviews with alumni have come to fruition as well from the joint effort.
"Our first strategy for this year is to connect the alumni to one another, to the institution and students," Setchell said. "So this is just the first step to strengthen our network and connection that our alums have."
Holly Enneking, the associate director of alumni engagement for career and online programs, said that students can access the directory by visiting the Hubbard Center tab on the University's website. Students can create their own accounts by entering an activation code which will be sent to them through an email today.
Unlike Moodle, DePauw emails and e-services accounts, which disappear when students graduate, the username and password for the alumni directory will remain after the graduation as students will automatically become a part of alumni network.
"This is the directory that you will have access for rest of your life," Bellani said.
The online website will also provide the downloadable templates such as sample introduction and thank you notes which students can edit and use. This will allow students who want to connect themselves to alumni to contact them in more "thoughtful and polite" ways, Bellani said.
"The reason why we put the templates is to help students create a positive first impression," Bellani said. "The students actually now have tools."
Students look forward to the opportunities this may provide.
"Alumni can teach you what you want to do or what you should do in the future," first-year Shiyu Su said. "So I think it is beneficial to students."
However, first-year Eric Heaton said he wasn't sure how it will actually help him.
"I haven't thought about using alumni connection before and it does not pertain to me at this moment," he said.
Bellani, Setchell and Enneking all said that they were very excited to announce "the big surprise" to students.
