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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Alumni database idea


This semester I’m writing a long form narrative centered on journalism graduates and what life after college is like. In my research, I have talked to several writers who attended various colleges and universities. Regardless of specific academic experiences, alum from UNH to Emerson all shared the same advice with me. That is: get to know your professors and classmates because it is those relationships that will carry you into a job in the real world. As one of the smaller majors on campus, we all see the same faces almost every day and generally know what each other are interested in. However, ABC anchor Dan Kloeffler told another one of my classes last week during a guest lecture that it gets harder to stay in touch when everyone has full time jobs. It would help if UNH created a database or some way for alum to keep in touch. It could be as simple as keeping contact information and current place of employment up to date. If connections really mean so much, a way for everyone to keep in touch after graduation would be more than useful, especially to journalists. I know that looking someone up on Facebook, Google, or LinkdIn is always an option, but this idea is different because it would be specific to our university and would include everyone. When we're all off on our own paths, looking at the database could spark a remembrance of an old classmate that may otherwise have slipped our minds. After all, there are a few hundred of us. Relative to other majors, it's not many, but will you really remember every person in a few years?

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