This session will explore what students and recent alumni are experiencing in our institutions and life about college. We will ground our conference with a basic student development and life-stage framework, and then connect how our advancement work helps to cement our constituents’ affinity to our institutions. The session will also explore the unique traits of the current generation and explore what our recent alumni need from our institutions.

Your future alumni leaders are already on campus—and they’re eager to be engaged. This session explores how to build or strengthen a student advancement program that can transform students into lifelong volunteers and donors. Through real‑world examples and campus case studies, we’ll discuss how, and share tips and trips to educate, inspire, and empower students to take ownership of philanthropy and institutional pride as the next generation of institutional champions.

This session explores strategies for creating engagement pathways that guide alumni from their first gift through their first decade of giving. Learn how to leverage student crowdfunding initiatives and affinity-based programming to identify giving interests early, build lasting volunteer pipelines, and adapt to generational preferences in communication and motivation.

The tassel turns, but the connection endures. This session shares how UT Knoxville creates senior-year experiences that become cherished traditions and spark ongoing alumni involvement. Learn how unique events and personalized outreach create meaningful experiences that inspire graduates to stay connected and committed to their alma mater.

Join us for this plenary session where we get real answers from real people! We’ll ask the questions; you take the notes! We’ve invited 4 panelists to answer the hard questions- How they want to engage, what we’re doing right, what we’re getting wrong, how we can help them to make the most of their experience as a current student or young alumni! Hear voices from panelist at Vanderbilt University, Indiana University and University of Tennessee

How do you turn today’s students into tomorrow’s active alumni donors? Start early, start authentically, and start with gratitude. This session explores Flint Hill School’s Grateful Huskies program — a scalable student engagement model turning philanthropy education into early alumni stewardship and participation.

Learn how authentic storytelling, peer-led initiatives, and mission-aligned stewardship tactics prepare students for life as alumni — while also stewarding parents, volunteers, and donors along the way.

Takeaways:

A roadmap for launching a student-to-alumni pipeline that begins before graduation.

Tools for educating students on philanthropy without making an ask.

Insight into the first-year and first-five-year engagement connection.
Scalable, actionable strategies to build belonging, inspire early giving behaviors, and drive sustained engagement through the crucial transition years.

Learn how to empower student ambassadors to drive engagement and make a lasting impact. This session explores practical strategies for advising, motivating, and connecting student leaders, featuring insights from the University of Florida Alumni Association’s Florida Cicerones program. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to strengthen their ambassador programs and foster long-term engagement.

Alumni engagement is not one-size-fits-all. While central alumni programs provide broad reach, academic units offer unparalleled opportunities to engage alumni in ways that align with their academic identity and professional interests. In recognizing this, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has unlocked deeper, more meaningful alumni connections through a hybrid model that combines the power of centralized strategy with the precision of unit-specific execution.

At VCU, six directors of alumni engagement operate within the central Development & Alumni Relations (DAR) department, each serving and working closely with up to three academic units. Through the lens of one director supporting the School of Education, School of Social Work, and L. Douglas Wilder School of Public Affairs, this session will explore how this structure works in practice. Attendees will gain insight into how academic unit engagement strengthens central efforts—and vice versa—while learning practical strategies for building unit-specific plans that resonate with alumni and align with the priorities and needs of each academic unit.

Real-world examples will illustrate successes and limitations, including programs and initiatives, communications/marketing, data management, managing multiple units, and operational considerations. Participants will leave equipped with a framework for launching or enhancing unit-based alumni engagement, actionable tips for fostering collaboration between central and academic teams, and creative ideas for leveraging resources and champions within the unit—including alumni, faculty, staff, and academic leadership—to drive meaningful, lasting engagement.

Created to empower alumni and encourage them to serve as advocates for the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, the Emerging Leaders Council is a distinguished group of recent alumni who give back through time, talent, and treasure, and play an active role in shaping the future of the college. Whether an alumnus is looking to reengage after a few years, or looking for a built in opportunity to stay connected directly after graduation, the Emerging Leaders Council serves as an initiation point and steppingstone to further engagement with both Fisher College of Business and The Ohio State University. This presentation session will explore the council’s journey - from concept to launch - and reflect on its first year, highlighting how the program has evolved and fostered a culture of philanthropy among recent alumni.

Today’s students and recent alumni are navigating unprecedented levels of digital noise alongside growing academic, financial, professional, and personal pressures. Higher education now competes for attention not only with influencers, brands, and employers, but also with limited time, competing priorities, and burnout. This session reframes student and alumni engagement through the lens of the Attention Economy, challenging traditional approaches and offering practical strategies to cut through the clutter and foster meaningful, sustained connections.