This is the 1st post in December’s Top Tens in 2010 Series. This guest post was written by Lea Marino, NYC resident and Community Manager for Bizzy (if you’re reading via RSS click through for Lea’s full bio). 
“TOGA! TOGA!”
Okay, maybe your undergrad years weren’t anything like Animal House. But, if you’re like me, you want to hold on to those 4(+) years regardless. After you’re finished reaping the discounts of your student ID years after graduation, grab your college hoodie and your number 2 pencil.
Surprise! It’s time for a pop quiz.
Q: How can you be an awesome alum of your alma mater?
A: Answers
1) Donate money
This one is probably the most obvious, but very helpful nonetheless. With the cost of college rising rapidly, any little contribution helps. Instead of blindly donating funds, talk with your university and see if it has a fund/scholarship set up to specifically help students finish their education during these hard economic times. You may feel more fulfilled knowing your contribution is assisting a current student and not buying the cleaning supplies used for obliterating Friday night’s puke out of the dorm carpet.
2) Join a local alumni club
The clear win-win choice. Colleges often tap these clubs to help speak with prospective students and man the booth at local college fairs. While one month you could be volunteering for these tasks, the next month you could be reliving tales about what floor you lived on freshman year over happy hour — and making invaluable career contacts in the process.
3) Support the sports teams
You don’t need to go all “rah rah” in order to support your college’s teams. Showing up wearing the school colors works just as well. If you can’t make it back to campus for a game, check the schedule online and see if your team is playing within driving distance of where you live. Buy the family tickets, call your sorority gals, or rent a bus for the whole neighborhood. Wear that school pride proudly! There’s strength in numbers… or a lot of foam fingers.
4) Contribute to its publications
Yes, I do recommend some personal PR and getting that blurb in the back of the alumni magazine with your wedding announcement and new job promotion. In addition, why don’t you reach out to the college publications staff and pitch a story that will benefit your college’s community. Or simply let them know what you’ve been working on and that you are open to being interviewed if any relevant stories come up. College publications are always looking for sources and stories to affirm for alumni that they are part of a community doing marvelous things. So, be that marvelous alum support!
5) Make connections for the university
We often help family, friends and colleagues advance their careers and personal goals. Why should your university be treated any differently? I know my college (Syracuse University) didn’t do much in social media when I graduated a few years ago. It’s come a long way since and I’d help set them up with my contacts and keep them in the loop regarding the latest on the NYC scene. I’m dedicated to helping enhance the programs of the university. Think of ways you could do the same!
6) Help conduct prospective student interviews
I must admit, I was a frequent tour guide on campus and spent many hours supporting the admissions department so this is one of my favorites. With campus’ recruiting across the nation (even world) and admissions departments that can’t have that much reach, volunteer a few times a year to assist with student interviews locally. You will be a great resource for the undecided prospective students in your area and the over-worked admissions department will be thrilled to have your help.
7) Participate in mentor programs
If you’re a recent grad, then you truly understand how helpful alumni informational interviews and mentor programs can be. Graduating college and entering the ‘real world’ can be a scary, unknown world for many recent grads. If you have the time, leave your email and work information with the alumni department. Some even have a form directly on the alumni website. These mentor programs help seniors and recent graduates connect with successful alumni in their target fields. You’ve navigated the waters. Help a fellow alum steer the ship a little better with your wisdom and experiences.
8 ) Engage on social media platforms
Thanks to Syracuse’s awesome community manager, Kelly Lux, Twitter and Facebook have seriously aided in keeping my school spirit at an all-time high (It also helps that the founder of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley, is an SU alum). If you’re already using these platforms go ahead and ‘like’ your college on Facebook and follow it on Twitter. It’s an easy way to keep on top of the latest news and engage with people that you wish you would’ve known while you were at school! I’ve connected with many alums – new and familiar – this way.
9) Go to homecoming
Well, that’s a no-brainer. Plus, it’s fun! [insert applicable fight song here]
10) Have your employer recruit on campus
If you work for a company large enough to recruit on college campuses, set up a meeting with your college’s career services and your human resources department. Universities often bring employers to campus and HR departments will search high and low for quality entry-level recruits. This is a great opportunity to help your company bring in new employees with an education you can happily stand behind.
11) All of the above
12) Other __________
(Please let me know anything I missed in the comments!)
ed·u·ca·tion
noun
1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life..
2. a degree, level, or kind of schooling.
I come from a family of doctors and lawyers so naturally the first word that comes to mind for E was Education. As soon as I started thinking about who I knew that was an expert on education I knew of course I’d ask my blogging friend who is currently in law school. I stumbled across her blog pretty close to the time that she was first starting law school and I have been a consistent reader since.
This guest post was written by Janet Wallace, a twentysomething law student with a love of cupcakes and peppermint. Janet can be found blogging at Slice of Pink.
My name is Janet Wallace and I am a schoolaholic.
I will turn thirty during my last year of law school. This means that I will have spent the majority of my twenties in school. I took a few years off between earning my bachelor’s degree and entering law school but, even then, I was a high school teacher. So technically, if you are counting, I’ve been in a classroom for twenty-five years straight.
I’ve learned about a lot of things during my formal education–statistics, gothic cathedrals, osmosis, federalism–but, if truth be told, I don’t use any of this information on a daily basis. I don’t break out my calculator at the grocery store to figure out the area of a frozen pizza or sit at home considering archetypal patterns in poetry. Occasionally, when I am visiting an art museum or watching a television game show, my degree in Art History serves me well; but, for the most part, knowing gobs of information about French Impressionism isn’t very practical in real life.
So, why then, you ask, would I choose to spend $150,000 and the entirety of my twenties sitting in a classroom?
There are the obvious reasons: all of this schooling will get me a better job, more money, nicer shoes. There is definitely that–and for a lot of people, that is enough.
For me, though, education is a drug. It is a powerfully addictive stimulant. Every day, I ride my bicycle down to campus to learn something new–sometimes something that I didn’t even realize existed–and it envelops me and makes me crave more.
Lately, I’ve been studying the law. My classmates, a competitive and eager bunch, are ready to finish up with their educations and enter the job market as soon as possible. Me? I’m not so sure. It seems I have a long list of things I’d still like to learn–Spanish, library science, how to make the perfect souffle.
Sometimes I think of all the things I know these day–things that were completely unfathomable to my teenage mind–and I realize how fortunate I am to be able to spend my twenties learning. But, of course, that thought has a sister: although I’ve spent the last twenty-five years in a classroom, the things I know are only a tiny glint of ice in a vast tundra of the incomprehensible. In the grand scheme of things, my education really hasn’t taught me much at all, but it sure has given me an unquenchable thirst for some more of it. I’m totally hooked.
The good news is, we don’t need some classroom in a fancy institution to get an education. All we need is a hunger for knowledge and, more importantly, the resolve to satisfy that hunger. There is such a wondrous world of information available to us, things unexpected and astounding, and we owe it to ourselves, to our children and grandchildren, and to each other, to expand our horizons and deepen our character. Make it a point to learn something new every day this month and I predict you’ll get addicted, too. It’s one hard habit to break.
I am also schoolaholic. I will most likely be starting on the next step in my education in the next year. I found that people are usually one end of the spectrum or the other on this topic – there are schoolaholics and school of life folks. My family and my upbringing have pointed me towards the schoolaholic side. Where do you stand on the topic of education?
If you’ve missed any of the other ABCs you can find them here.
]]>I certainly would not consider myself the spelling expert but I often see yeah and yay misused so I thought I’d have a little education session.
- Yeah - pronounced ye-uh as in yes
"Hey Jen, are you going to with us to the mall."- girl a; "Yeah, I’ll go"- girl b - Yay – rhymes with and is a synomym of hooray. It’s used in cases of excitement.
"Did I tell you I won an ipod?" – girl a; "No! Oh that is exciting. Yay!" – girl b - Yah – is also an expersion of agreement but there is no excitement.
"Hey are you ready to go" – girl a; "yah" – girl b - Ya – means you
"How are ya?" - Yea – is a very old-fashioned formal way of saying “yes,” used mainly in voting. It’s the opposite of—and rhymes with—“nay.”
"All in favor say yea, all opposed nay." - and if that wasn’t confusing enough yay can also refer to height, as in "when I was yay big" [holding hand up]
Did you catch all that?
]]>Suddenly, the tenets of success we’ve followed since kindergarten don’t apply, because getting ahead in the business world often has nothing to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations. Since they don’t teach corporate in college, here are six tips to help you win at the business world’s game.
What you didn’t learn in college
]]>GenGreen – COLLEGE: Going green at graduation? Turns out showing eco-solidarity at graduation just may be a theme that catches on this season. As one example, more than 100 of the 560 graduates at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania signed sustainability pledges promising to recycle and conserve resources as part of graduation day
- College Grads Go Green on Graduation Day!
How would you like to travel the world and have someone else pay for it? I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty nice to me. Well, Tim Ferris the author of 4-Hour Workweek is giving away this opportunity.
He is holding a contest that compliments his book. If you can answer the question “How would you use 36 extra hours per week?” in 350 words or less, you could win a roundtrip anywhere in the world, a private consultant with the author and $1,000 for the cause of your choice.
I haven’t read the book yet (it’s on my to-do list) but I certainly have heard a lot of buzz about this book lately. Not too long ago I read a few articles about the Four Day Week Challenge and it wasn’t too long after that the 4 Hour Workweek book followed. From what I have heard the idea of the book is cut out all things that are not productive and reduce the amount of time you are spending on unnecessary tasks. Would taking the time to enter his contest count as something unnecessary?
Enter here: Writing Contest
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I would consider myself to be an intellectual person. I love learning new things and I did well throughout all of my schooling. I was an honor roll student in high school. So, I was intrigued by something I came across today.
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
I graduated high school *several* years ago and have since completed my Bachelors degree. So, naturally I expected that I would know (or at least be familiar with) most of the words on this list.
I was surprised to find that I only know about a third of the words on the list. Granted, I am an artist so I am more of a visual person than a literary person. Also, I have always been more of a numbers kinda gal.
So my question is … is this just a creative advertising stunt to sell a dictionary to parents of high school seniors or should I go hide in the corner because I am the only person over the age of 18 that doesn’t know what a ziggurat is without consulting dictionary.com?
Perhaps, I should take the list of words to my mother who has two PHD’s and see how many she knows. I guarantee she will know more of them than I do.
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