From the Nominator

Kennesaw State University's Office of Alumni and Constituent Engagement aims to provide a fun, Instagram-able moment for graduates as we welcome them to the alumni association following each Commencement ceremony. We created "Forever Owl Fest" through collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs, Department of Athletics, Parent and Family Programs, and all 11 colleges at the university. "Forever Owl Fest" features tents for each campus partner to celebrate graduates, numerous photo opportunities, and gifts from the alumni association. By hosting this event, we can improve key engagement channels to ensure recent graduates are connected to the alumni association within the first year by updating their contact information with a non-KSU email address. This event also enables us to improve campus partnerships across the university by demonstrating the impact alumni activities have on the campus community. In the spring of 2022, we had 1,187 graduates update their contact information in our system (36.2 percent of the graduating class) and hosted 4,000 parent and family visitors on the Campus Green. We made fundamental changes to improve our graduates' experience this year, including streamlining the process for updating contact information, having a more robust marketing plan to drive awareness, and including the Honors College. These improvements resulted in our department receiving 1,699 contact updates from graduates (70 percent of graduating class) in the fall of 2022. "Forever Owl Fest" has not only put the alumni association on the map but has set the tone for the new standard of events at Kennesaw State University.

From the Judges

The panel felt this was a good idea with clear goals and strong results. The judges agreed that creatively collecting contact information for continued engagement with recent graduates is important. They were particularly fond of all the data and metrics that were included in this entry and believe that strengthens its ability to serve as a case study for other institutions.