Message from Denise Dwight Smith, Assistant Vice President for Alumni & Career Services
It is difficult to accurately find a word to describe this past year - the second in the pandemic - but, I can honestly say that it was amazing. This was largely due to the outstanding Alumni & Career Services (ACS) team and our partners across campus, in the Advancement Division, and beyond. The collaborative effort of students, alumni, faculty, staff, employers, and parents, made this year a success.
Our team met opportunities and challenges head on by offering successful alumni programming, including our first "post-pandemic" Reunion on-campus, hybrid career advising to prepare our students for an ever-evolving world of work, as well as nearly 300 events and programs in a time where the world wasn't quite ready to "open back up."
For context, despite our success, our office was not immune to "the great resignation," with over 30% of the our staff having been lured away by other opportunities. But, we were still able to promote current team members, as well as attract new creative and talented individuals.
Pivotal Partnerships
Our partnerships continue to be intentional and critical to the success of ACS. This year, we worked with over 235 faculty and staff members to deliver high-quality programs to our alumni and students, featuring a wide range of speakers and topics. Our partnerships off campus, included our work with over 85 organizations who participated in recruitment activities to hire our Spiders, as well as 420 alumni volunteers across the country that help plan, host, and promote events that foster local alumni connections to their alma mater and one another.
The Pandemic's Effect on Engagement
Getting closer to pre-pandemic levels, all of our engagement goals that support the University's priorities were close to or surpassed with over 1581 young grad registrants/volunteers (96% of goal), 4229 alumni registrations (121% of goal), and 2,957 students engaged (118% of goal.) Once again, over 98% of the graduating class participated in the use of career services, even though our office is voluntary in nature.
The UR Summer Fellowships program application numbers were down (64% of goal use of internships funds) and although it's disappointing, we know that might be due to the positive reason that employer demand for college talent meant paid internships were up.
Outstanding Outcomes
Several outcomes stand out for us, with the first being the inaugural Presidential Welcome Reception in Richmond for Dr. Hallock, that attracted over 500 alumni to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to meet and hear more about his exciting goals for the University. Also, excitement abounded with our basketball team's stint in the playoffs resulting in even more unique alumni engagement than originally projected (nearly 10,000 - over a 121% of goal.)
9100 students and alumni utilized Career Services, which topped 107% of our goal. Additionally, 765 parents and alumni engaged with us in helping our students with their career goals (102% of our goal.) We are grateful to be listed in Princeton Review's 2021 list of the 200 Best Value Colleges for both "Great Career Services" and one of the “Best Schools for Internships."
Technology Innovations
FY22 also brought new administrative software platforms to the entire Advancement Division, including two new CRMs, ArachNet and Handshake. We also are excited to be introducing the use of AI technology for resume review, maximizing personal career advising time for each student.
Overall, we saw across our constituent base, optimism and excitement to be back in person, where possible, and gratitude for our spectacular programs and services.
Alumni & Career Services Supports University Priorities
President Hallock is focused on the following areas of opportunity for the University: access and affordability, experiential learning, belonging, well-being, academic excellence, and community engagement. He encouraged us all to use these pillars as a "guiding light" for our work this year and beyond.
Reflecting on FY22, we'd like to highlight ways in which Alumni & Career Services was successful in those areas.
Career Opportunity Fund
The Career Opportunity Fund helps students cover the cost of travel, professional wardrobe, and graduate school application fees. This year, we funded 75 requests, 44 of which were funded by our University of Richmond Alumni Association.
The funding eased my self-doubt and boosted my confidence, allowing me to perform at my highest potential and succeed in the professional world. Thank you so much! - Career Opportunity Fund Recipient
With rising costs due to inflation, we had more students than ever request funds to take part in our Spiders in Silicon Valley Road Trip. An opportunity in which students interested in entrepreneurship travel to San Francisco to visit with startups and innovative companies. With many students unable to participate in in-person internships due to the pandemic, our road trips were more important than ever to give them that experience.
The Richmond Guarantee
The Richmond Guarantee ensures that every undergraduate student is eligible for funding of up to $5,000 for summer research or an internship experience before they graduate.
This opportunity has been invaluable and I owe it all to the selflessness and generosity University of Richmond’s donors. I am a real example of the impact these donations make, and the value UR students get out of programs like this one. - Spider Internship Fund Recipient
In Summer 2022, we funded 490 students for their internship and research experiences at organizations such as: ABC News, Duke University Medical Center, World Green Growth Organization, Virginia Housing Alliance, New York Family, Cedars-Sinai, U.S. Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights, U.S. Department of State, World Pediatric Project, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and more!
UR Summer Fellows interned and conducted faculty mentored research in 24 states including Washington, DC. The states where the most interns and researchers were located were Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts. Fellows participated in summer internships or faculty mentored research experiences abroad in 21 countries in locations such as South Africa, Spain, Peru, and Japan.
Summer fellows were awarded funding to pursue a wide variety of experiences like inaugurating an E-learning course to assist in building climate resilient drylands at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy, conducting faculty led research on the impact of Covid-19 on indigenous peoples of the southwestern Amazon, and writing articles for the arts and entertainment section of Richmond Magazine.
Belonging
In order to fulfill the University's mission to “educate students for lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a diverse world,” we must work together to make Richmond a welcoming place for people from all backgrounds, identities, viewpoints, and experiences.
This year, our office partnered with the newly established Student Center for Equity and Inclusion on mentoring and career-based programming, tailored for specific populations and their needs, including first-generation and multicultural students.
This graph was extracted from our engagement data to show the inclusivity of our reach, including minority, first generation, and international students.
In FY22, we served 79% of the undergraduate student population, with 100% of respondents who evaluated career advising as "very helpful" in accomplishing their goals and 98.5% finding our programs useful and applicable to their career journey.
Well-Being
The "8 Dimensions of Wellness" model includes occupational wellness as the personal satisfaction and enrichment derived from one's work.
WELL 100 Courses for First-Year Students
This year, the University launched its wellness series required for every undergraduate student prior to graduation. First-year students complete WELL 100, a class that is geared towards topics that will promote their academic success and personal health.
In our WELL 100 courses, Life & Career, Career Exploration, and Exploring Health Careers, our advisors taught nearly 900 first-year students in 37 sections. The course focused on self-reflection though personality assessments, interviewing and networking skills, personal finance, and more.
Academic Excellence
As we mentioned above, the success we've had this year would not have been possible without our strong collaboration with key partners, such as faculty and staff.
235 faculty/staff members engaged on various initiatives
Two examples of our commitment to academic excellence are:
- A fact many don't know, our career advisors also serve as academic advisors, helping students choose a major that fits their interests and skill set, and ensuring that they meet all the requirements to graduate.
- We partner with the undergraduate school deans, staff, and faculty for the professional development programs A&S NEXT, Jepson EDGE, and Q-Camp.
Community Engagement
Community engagement - whether that be on-campus with students, faculty and staff, or with alumni and employers from around the world - is at the core of our mission.
85 organizations participated in recruitment activities
In addition to our hiring partners, our Employer Relations team engaged the greater Richmond community with our partnership with RVA NOW, which is a ChamberRVA program that introduces college students and post-grads to the Richmond region and all that it has to offer. This year, we partnered with them for their first-ever College Jam, which gave students the opportunity to go off campus into the city to connect with local employers.
Class of 2022
Lastly, we'd like to spotlight our graduates, the Class of 2022. Below is data from our First Destination Survey at graduation. We also collect data at 6-months and one-year-out post-grad. To see one-year-out data from previous class years, visit ifx.richmond.edu.