We have an Outreach Team that places emphasis on developing and maintaining relations with the community; they also incorporate activities to involve students, alumni, and the general public.
We have both a Community Alliance team that reaches out to the community icluding corporations and businesses and a marketing staff who work together in community relations.
Michelle,
This is true. Have you been successful in encouraging students to get involved as well?
Ann Cross
Active involvement and membership in the local Chamber of Commerce offers opportunities for business owners to interact with students and graduates by participating in event programming of: guest lecturing, mentoring, and participating in profession specific Advisory Boards.
Regarding improving relations with the community we get our allied health students involved with community health fairs and events. It gives the student experience working with the public and lets the public know who we are and what we do. We also work with a few companies to help some of their employees toward continuing their education. In improving relations with students we do awards monthly celebrating their successes in academics and attendance. Career Services is most excited about the perfect attendance awards so we started making a really big deal out of that. We play music and dance as we hand the awards out. The students love it. Many of them will catch me in the hall and say "I'll be dancing with you this month".
Kendra,
This is a very smart approach. Many schools are resistant to encourage students to connect with them on LinkedIn. Does your Career Services staff connect with students, and if so, did you set up some policies around that which you would be willing to share?
Ann Cross
