Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: California State University San Marcos

Title of entry: Alumni Feature Friday and Volunteer Tuesday

About this entry: California State University San Marcos is a mere 30 years old, which translates to a relatively young alumni population. A common theme learned through annual surveys is our alumni don’t think other alumni figuratively “look” like them, they don’t think they can relate to other alumni through experiences and interactions, or they don’t perceive commonalities amongst their peers. To our alumni, giving back and engaging with the campus is synonymous with age and certain levels of success. Additionally, over 50% of our alumni are first in their families to graduate from college. We realized we needed to define what “alumni” means for our unique population.

With survey results in mind and the goal to make the word alumni relatable, we have an ongoing social media campaign on Instagram called “Alumni Feature Friday.” The campaign is intended to show who our alumni are, what they “look” like and how they can get engaged with CSUSM. We’re featuring recent graduates, graduates who are connecting, giving back and engaging with CSUSM.

This year we also added a new segment called “Volunteer Tuesday”, which focuses on posts and reels from alumni who are volunteering their time to give back to campus. The goal is to show that all alumni, regardless of career and giving status are capable of making an impact.

The ongoing response to Alumni Feature Friday and Volunteer Tuesday segments have been extremely positive. Alumni are interacting with each other, responding with congratulatory comments, and adding pieces of advice for other alumni.