A Faculty-Driven Professional Alumni Celebration Event: Benefits to Alumni, Students, and the Institution

Successful alumni relations require investment in the institution through donations, time, and talent. We describe faculty-driven alumni events focused on two professions: law and medicine. These events celebrate alumni achievement and connect alumni with faculty and current and prospective students. Organizational identity theory, mutualism and social exchange theory are used to frame the potential of these faculty-led events. Analysis of data from participants reveals positive associations from the different stakeholders. These events promote further engagement of alumni through networking, volunteer opportunities, classroom visits, and student mentoring. The design of the event is such that it can be broadly applied with different groups of alumni to help engage alumni and current/future students.