May 12–14, 2016
Vice chair Melanie Pastuck ’11 welcomed the committee members and opened the meeting. The first item on the agenda was the approval of Amber Bryant ’12 for the position of vice chair of the committee in 2016-2017. Melanie will automatically become chair for that year.
John Valdez ’07 and Shiv Chadha ’17, a member of the Hill Winds Society, shared the work they have done to reinvigorate the Class2Class mentoring program between the rising seniors and their 10-year counterparts during the younger classes’ junior-senior summer break. The goal of the program is to provide a meaningful volunteer opportunity for the ’07s and a Dartmouth connection to ’17s who may be interning or working in a new city. The structure of the program provides mentoring matches in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Each city will host a kick-off and closing event for mentors and mentees with additional meetings to be initiated by participants. To date, 98 students and 49 alumni mentors have signed up to participate. John and Shiv discussed their planning process – which began during the summer of 2015 – and outreach – which included email, social media, and personal interactions. Next steps included matching mentors and mentees, finalizing kick-off details, and beginning to plan for next summer with the classes of 2008 and 2018.
Assistant Director of Class Activities Nicole Losavio introduced herself and shared information about her work with students and young alumni before discussing survey results indicating the high rate of young alumni engagement, methods of engagement by young alumni (through friend groups, attending campus events, and attending regional events), and desired programming (academic, career and professional, public service, and personal finance). Nicole also shared ways in which Alumni Relations is providing outreach, resources, and support for young alumni programming in five key cities in addition to all other clubs with young alumni chairs. Examples included social programming such as the Big Green Affair, educational programming such as providing young alumni with discounted tickets to attend Dartmouth on Location events, career and professional programming such as the MBA admissions events held in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and service programs such as the Alumni Day of Service. She also indicated that financial programming may be the next topic for young alumni chairs to explore.
Jack Steinberg ’88, Jennifer Avellino ’89, and Lou Spelios ’95 discussed the social media toolkit that was provided to all alumni councilors prior to the meeting and asked for feedback from the committee.
Feedback included appreciation of the use of sound bites intended for Twitter in emails to classes because young alumni prefer short messages for communications. Some methods that worked well included Instagram posts with campus photos, emails, and use of the hashtag. It was noted that use of social media led to more public comments and discussion for some councilors. Members expressed appreciation for the Jake Tapper ’91 iPhone message and were interested in using messaging similar to this before future meetings.
It was noted that the Alumni Service Committee is interested in partnering with the Young Alumni Committee next year as a way to increase young alumni participation in the Alumni Day of Service.