Alumni Give Back?

Once again it's graduation season. My Alma Mater continues to host several events to keep the alumni interested and involved. They're also making strides to connect graduates with current students for mentorships and networking opportunities. Bravo, University of Baltimore!

My current employer, another Maryland university, is taking it a step further by asking  their successful alums to take the Internship Challenge.

We all know that there's a certain level of (alma mater) nepotism--where graduates of a school seek to actively hire fellow graduates or students--in the professional world. Frankly, I'm a huge fan of this! I know that graduates of my undergrad and grad programs are adept creating effective design and communications--keeping the audience, message and media in the forefront of design (this just isn't true of graduates of the geographically close, and highly acclaimed art school in the region).

The Internship Challenge takes this nepotism to another level. Instead of presupposing that fellow grads are prepared for the professional world, it gives them the tools and skills to compete. The Alumni offer paid  (or unpaid) internships to current students. This gives them college credit AND real-world experience that helps them get hired above other applicants who lack the professional experience.

I just presented the model to my alumni association in the hopes that they are able to mimic it and give UB students a further leg up over their competition.