The impact of the Wheaton alumni network is no secret to alumni, and for many, it has been a treasure discovered through the passage of time after graduation. Many can relate to the feeling that meeting a fellow—and previously unknown— alumnus/a in the wild of the world is a true homecoming of the heart.

Alumni open their arms wide for each other, and the shared experience of studying at Wheaton College is an instant bond, no matter the graduation year. While many of us have enjoyed these often-serendipitous experiences, the groundwork for relationships between alumni is constructed on campus with great intent, building the community of the alumni network before students even graduate.

Alumni have always been drawn to connecting with and investing in one another, and the opportunities to do so continue to grow.

From the College’s early days, alumni have played an important role in students’ lives. For example, graduating classes in the 1800s shared in an annual Commencement dinner hosted by alumni, meant to celebrate the graduating seniors. Over the last few years, the offices of Alumni and Parent Engagement and the Center for Vocation and Career (CVC) have joined forces to maximize these connections for students before and after graduation from Wheaton College. Wheaties are students for a short time, but alumni for life. 

“Alumni bring great talent and perspective to the institution and we want to give them opportunities to connect and give back in ways that are meaningful to them,” says Senior Director for Vocation and Alumni Engagement and Executive Director of the Wheaton College Alumni Association Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch ’82. “And by engaging more alumni, we give students the opportunity to build relationships, glean wisdom, and benefit from the spiritual insights of alumni.”

With the College’s decision in 2014 to align the CVC with the Advancement, Vocation, and Alumni Engagement Division, the opportunities have grown immensely for the staff to collaborate on creative and strategic engagements between students and alumni.

Ten current students comprise the volunteer Student Alumni Board, which exists to create meaningful interactions and experiences that unite the Wheaton family of students and alumni to glorify Christ and his kingdom. This group is peer-led by two co-presidents and includes sophomores, juniors, and seniors. They take full ownership of a slate of annual events and programs designed to connect current students with alumni.

“The Student Alumni Board is an open space where the student leadership team can try different approaches and build a community around alumni connections,” says Christy Krumsieg Vosburg ’11, associate director of student and young alumni programs.

Now in its sixth year, the Board’s focus is on fostering student-alumni relationships, especially with nearby Chicagoland alumni. Events and programs include informal meals, on-campus events, spiritual encouragement, and sessions with alum-ni providing general life advice.

While the Student Alumni Board’s mission is to build relationships, Externship Day seeks to expose current students to the career side of post-Wheaton life. During Externship Day each February, Chicagoland alumni host current students at their workplaces for a job shadow day. Externship Day is in its fifth year, and as a shared initiative of the Alumni and Parent Engagement office and the Center for Vocation and Career, it continues to grow in size each year.

The goal of Externship Day is to allow students to explore career paths they might be interested in. Alumni register online and fill out a profile describing what the Wheaton College student can expect throughout a typical day in the life of their job. Once the alumni have been registered, students browse the choices and rank their top five preferences. Then Wheaton staff match students with alumni, in groups as large as fifteen or as small as one.

During the Externship Day experience, alumni spend quality time with their assigned students. They share about their majors, their journies after Wheaton, and the things they have learned along the way. Alumni can speak directly to the career aspect of post-graduation life and how the Wheaton College framework shaped that trajectory.

This year, 176 students went to 71 different host sites. Over the past five years, a total of 659 students have been matched with 295 alumni host sites. Some students have even received job offers borne from the relationships built during Externship Day. Students find the experience helpful because it serves as a glimpse into their field of interest. Talking to alumni can help guide their next steps forward or prompt a change of direction. Shadowing alumni provides students with an open environment to ask questions and explore. The experience has proven to be positive for alumni, too. An astonishing one hundred percent of alumni who hosted last year indicated they would like to participate again in future years. 

While Wheaton College is fortunate to have many alumni in the local area to work with, students can connect with thousands of alumni all over the globe through Wheaton in Network, an online platform designed primarily for students who are seeking advice about internships, careers, and graduate school.

More than 3,000 alumni are registered on the network. The Alumni Office has helped study-abroad students use the platform to connect with alumni living in foreign countries, taking the student-alumni connections all over the world. More information can be found at win.wheaton.edu.

Taking advantage of the global alumni network is a big focus for the Center for Vocation and Career in particular. Last year, the CVC engaged nearly 300 alumni through their programs, which seek to guide students through early self- and career-discovery processes. The CVC team frames its approach through a pyramid: at the base, it helps students get to know themselves, inviting them to explore careers; at the next level, it helps students think beyond themselves; then, it helps students explore careers with alumni throughout the world.

“Wheaton College has the best alumni in the world,” says Dee Pierce M.A. ’17, director of the CVC. “The alumni are the secret sauce. They exude incredible generosity and are doing wonderful things in the world. We always look to our alumni base first when we build career exploration programs.”

The CVC creates opportunities in a variety of settings—everything from casual “meet and greets” or comfortable Taco Tuesday discussions to Networking Nights and Leadership Lunches with C-suite executives. 

The CVC’s Meet and Greets are a chance for students to sit with an alumnus in person or via video call from anywhere in the world and simply chat.

Taco Tuesdays are—you guessed it—taco dinners on Tues-days during which students learn from alumni about specific careers. They have been particularly successful because they present a low barrier for students to explore different industries. The topics are either industry or role focused, and alumni participate in person at Anderson Commons or via video call. The number of Taco Tuesday sessions has grown every year, with a total of ten sessions this year.

Networking Nights introduce students to the skill of networking. This gives them a place to practice making strategic professional connections with others in a supportive environment, aided by coaches. The evenings include a panel discussion with career coaches and alumni. 

Leadership Lunches offer students the unique opportunity to hear from C-suite leaders on everything from business to faith in the workplace. 

Each of these alumni-student interactions offers an interesting perspective from which students benefit in their scholastic, vocational, personal, and spiritual lives. The number of alumni involved in these programs continues to grow year after year, with many agreeing that the interactions with students are an enjoyable way to give back to the Wheaton community.

Hundreds of alumni are giving students the keys to unlock doors to a world of post-collegiate life and build meaningful alumni relationships early. These initiatives are creating an ever-stronger Wheaton alumni network that serves both younger and older alumni alike.