EAA: Survey Says

In 2012, the Emory Alumni Association commissioned the Performance Enhancement Group to conduct the first of three surveys to be administered over five years to determine alumni attitudes and interests.

In our third installment of this series, we focus on efforts to increase our engagement of current students to strengthen the student-to-alumni experience. A positive student experience at Emory may significantly influence perception of Emory as an alumnus or alumna, willingness to remain involved in Emory post-graduation, and willingness to recommend Emory to prospective students. We wanted to find out what factors influence student experience, and what role the alumni association can have in affecting it.

The Student-to-Alumni Experience Continuum

Alumni respondents were asked to rate how important each of the following was to their experience as students and how well Emory did at providing them.

What Alumni Say They Valued as Students

• Skills and training for career
• Opportunities for student employment and internships
• Traditions or values learned on campus
• Opportunities to interact with alumni

In Response, the EAA Is Increasing

• Awareness of the EAA resources that help students prepare for life after college, including career services, mentoring opportunities, job postings, Life 101 programs, and alumni chapters and interest groups.
• Alumni-student interactions through programs such as Dinner with 12 Strangers, Emory Cares, social media groups, alumni advisers to student organizations, and Alumni Admission Network opportunities.
• Graduate school support and interaction through Graduate SGA representation on the Emory Alumni Board, mentor programs, and strategic partnerships and joint programs with professional schools.
• Student Alumni Association participation, strengthening its presence on campus and its role in fostering traditions. The SAA was instrumental in developing the Emory Memory: Traditions, Legacy, & Lore book given to all students when they arrive on campus for orientation and is now a major part of signature campus traditions.

Johannes Kleiner 20PhD (left) and Emory mentor Mark Bauman 75PhD

“Mark and I are a wonderful team,” says Kleiner. “As a first-year doctoral student in Hebrew Bible, I am trying to find my own voice in the scholarly community and to prepare myself for a demanding job market. Mark, a senior scholar, journal editor, and experienced teacher, has the gift to challenge me to critically rethink and reformulate my positions. Coming from the field of history, more specifically the study of Judaism in the US South, Mark offers a unique perspective on my research on the Hebrew Bible, introducing me to a community that I knew little about before. I value Mark’s insights into academic writing and the publication process. An editor himself, he is able to provide me, a native German speaker, with excellent feedback. Mark has become a true mentor and friend, whose resourcefulness, curiosity, and considerate nature I enjoy every time we meet.”

Invest in the next generation of Emory Alumni

1. Sign up as a volunteer for the Emory Alumni Admissions Network. Help recruit the next generation of Emory Alumni.
2. Subscribe to interest group and student programming volunteer opportunities
3. Post jobs and internships