Alumni Associations and the role they play in reconnecting past students and friends

Introduction

Recently this year, the former students (alumni) of Starehe Boys Centre were reconnecting and some of the leaders in the corporate as well as political circles were awarded life membership in what they called the “Old Starehian Society”. It is no doubt that Starehe has produced a good number of outstanding leaders in Kenya. A majority of them credit their successes to their alma mater (former school), Starehe Boys Centre and School which helped mould them to who they are today. It is important to note that alumni associations play a significant role in reconnecting such past students with their respective alma maters in an organized, orderly and more structured manner. The aim is to support a network of former graduates who will, in turn, help to raise the profile of the institution, be it a primary school, high school, college or university. Just like most other university student organizations, alumni associations bring together like-minded individuals, who agree to come together for a good cause, for instance giving back to their alma mater.

We have seen larger, more powerful alumni associations assist their alma mater in various activities such as creating and running foundations, offering financial aid through harambees, mentoring students, supporting research among other philanthropic works. Alumni associations are critical to the sustainability and continued service to the society of the alma mater. More importantly, the skills, expertise and network possessed by the members of the alma mater could be a key resource and asset that may provide invaluable to the alma mater in its future engagements. It is therefore imperative that such alumni associations are created, maintained and nurtured since they are very important to the continued existence, relevance and growth of the alma mater.

My shared experiences in coordinating Strathmore’s School of Accountancy at 50 (popularly known as SOA@50)

I first got closely involved with the Strathmore Alumni Liaison Office (SALO) in 2004 under the leadership of Professor David Sperling (co-founder at the Strathmore Group of Institutions) who had a vision of bringing all former students of Strathmore together in the form of an alumni association (now registered as the Strathmore University Alumni Council, SUAC). This vision guided our efforts to reach out to past students of Strathmore from literally every corner of the globe. It is against this background that I was retained as the Project Consultant for the SOA@50, then a “project” aimed at reconnecting past students who undertook their Accountancy certification through Strathmore (beginning in 1966).

It was around this time when Strathmore Institute’s SOA was celebrating its golden jubilee (50th anniversary) in 2016. During the 9-month period in 2017, a number of activities led by a project team created specifically for project SOA@50 were rolled out. These included: breakfast, graduation ceremony, photo exhibition, a gala dinner among other exciting events. These events brought together attendees from around the world, with hundreds attending in person and thousands following via livestream during the penultimate gala dinner event on Saturday, 25th November 2017 at the Strathmore University graduation grounds. This marked an important milestone for SOA, with a good number of alumni members signing up to the event and committing to a continued and active engagement with Strathmore.

Concluding remarks

Alumni networks in various organizations across the globe such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton (United States), Oxford and Cambridge (United Kingdom) wield considerable influence especially financial support for their respective alma maters. Some of these models are essential for us to consider in Kenya since most of the leaders we have in all our spheres of life have been shaped by their respective alma maters. In Kenya, the journey to help strengthen the connection between past students and their respective learning institutions continues in earnest. As a case in point, the Association of Alumni Communities in Kenya (www.alumnikenya.org) is dedicated towards these efforts of reconnecting past students with their alma maters, and would be worth trying out, should your organization want to reconnect with its past students.

David Ndolo is an entrepreneur and a board member at the Association of Alumni Communities in Kenya (AACK)