Alumni spanning class years from 1960 to 2012 shared their experiences with more than 100 Wagner students at the Student-Alumni Career Conversations event on April 30 at the Cornell Club in Manhattan. The event was co-hosted by the Alumni Association and the Center for Academic and Career Engagement.
With résumés and business cards in hand, the students worked their way around the room to meet the 50 alumni volunteers, representing 14 career fields and organizations including Teachers College, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York state government offices, and the U.S. Treasury Department.
“Talking to alumni from different industries was a great opportunity to learn from other people’s career choices,” said Kayla Thomas ’13. For Ellen Huffman ’14, it was “a unique experience, not just to meet professionals in my field, but Wagner professionals with an interest in my personal success as a fellow Seahawk.”
“It was a great opportunity to meet both recent and longtime graduates to pick their brains about how they ended up in the industry they work in, and the steps they took to get there,” said Roger Ricketts, an MBA candidate at Wagner. “I hope to be able to come back to Wagner at some point in the future to share with the students the way the alumni did with us.”
The Student-Alumni Career Conversations event will become an annual tradition. Under new leadership from Geoffrey Hempill, senior associate dean and director, the Center for Academic and Career Engagement will re-launch the alumni mentoring program this fall. There are many ways alumni can participate, such as one-on-one conversations, networking events, and mock interview panels.
