Message from the Assistant Vice President
We are pleased by the success this past year in achieving Alumni & Career Services(ACS) goals, measured by program emphasis and by the numbers you see in this highlights piece.
One of the big hopes for each team was to increase engagement back to pre-pandemic levels, of which we realized in almost all cases. In person was the modality for the majority of programs and events except where we learned that both alumni and student engagement would be higher at the hybrid level, such as for the Consulting "Spider Road Trip." Student advising continued to be offered through both in- person and remote options, both of which were popular. OurAlumni Relations (AR) team also altered formats for alumni engagement, which attracted smaller groups around new common interest activities (e.g., movie night, terrarium creations), as well as regional road trips (NC). The "As Spiders Do"podcast launch was a success as well.
Alumni engagement surpassed unique registrations goals at 111%. Undergraduate student engagement met 100% of goal, and 96% of student survey respondents valued career services programs as useful and applicable to their career journey.With four staff members being hired into vacated positions, we were also able to return to goals for organizational site visits/cultivations, employer consults, and holding president’s receptions, Homecoming and Reunion - all in person.
Technology was a key focus. The Advancement Division’s move to Blackbaud CRM (ArachNet) particularly supported tracking for alumni events. Career Services (CS)transitioned to the Handshake platform, which was positive in terms of exponentially increasing the number of job postings Richmond students have exposure to (up 350%) and tripling our hiring partners to nearly 3,000. Even though some limitations of being able to track alumni and parent engagement occurred, their involvement in student career education is strong. CS will be looking at solving CRM specific needs in the coming year, along with exploring tools for alumni mentoring. Much effort was focused on updating resources for constituents and redesigning the CS website.
With the expanded Wellness Courses involvement, over 87% of first year students were introduced to CS and early exploration exercises and tools. It is imperative for students to be engaged in CS throughout their four years and faculty and academic partnerships are key to making that happen. We saw a significant increase in engagements with those partners, ending FY23 with 301, or 151% of our goal, noting many of these were new relationships. Similarly, in terms of partnerships, the value of engaging alumni volunteers is a key goal which was almost reached at 99% of the goal. We are grateful for all the collaborations with others.
Areas in which number goals were not reached or surpassed include Reunion and the UR Summer Fellowships Student Internship Fund (SIF.) Reunion numbers were still strong, returning close to pre-covid levels, but we still saw evidence of reticence to attend these large programs in person among some alumni. All the attendees showed great appreciation for being back together and for the quality programming they experienced.
While use of SIF internship funds increased over 11% from last year, the numbers are still not back to pre-covid levels for several reasons we hypothesize. For example, the stronger economy is leading to more paid opportunities (and the NationalAssociation for Colleges and Employers released a new strong paid opportunities guideline for employers) and there is an emphasis on access and equity in many industries, such as in government and politics, leading to more paid opportunities.
Of significance was the engagement of an external Career Services review team with expertise to look at ways that, indeed, Richmond could become "best in class."The ideas and suggestions generated by the team were helpful and the overall review was very strong. The team definitely pointed to the importance of influencing the ecosystem about career development at Richmond and maintaining a close relationship with partners in the academic area.
The goals that ACS has in supporting guiding lights were realized, including continuing to provide a strong foundation for first-year students through early engagement, increasing participation with faculty and staff, and offering high impact quality applied learning, as well as fostering the value of reciprocal community engagement with Richmond and beyond the local area.
Engagement by the Numbers
Student Engagement
This year, our Career Services team engaged 77% of the undergraduate student population through advising, programming, on-campus recruiting, wellness courses (908 students!), and more.
Of the undergraduate population, the team engaged 92% Jepson, 78% Business, and 76% A&S students.
"Beth Chancy in Career Services changed my life by showing me how to apply one good story to an interview question. With her help, I landed my dream internship at LinkedIn." - Luiza Cocito, '23
Alumni and Employer Engagement
We had over 10,000 total alumni engagements through advising (alums have access to career services for life), hiring Spiders, volunteering, as well as attending events around the globe!
Below is a sample of employers who recruited our students this year.
Class of 2023 Outcomes
We are so proud of our 2023 graduates! Below are results of our First Destination Survey to give you an idea of where they are now.
Awards & Recognition
There are so many things our team can be proud of from this past year - from awards to countless thank you emails from students and alumni, to even a surprise gratitude cake from a student who utilized our space for her medical school interviews (she got into Harvard!)
Below are a only a few* examples of the recognition our team received.