On January 10 2022, Penn State Global Alumni Engagement hosted our first biweekly meeting for 2022. The purposes of the meeting were to discuss on matters regarding the new meeting format, upcoming Global Career Workshop, SAGA new updates such as alumni responses to interviews, social media updates, and also to welcome SAGA members who were finally able to join our in-person meeting(Yifan and Yunice).The meeting was held at Room 410 Boucke Building from 4.30p.m. to 6.00p.m. and 19 members were present.
The meeting began with an introduction to the SAGA new student intern, Alisia Lee. Alisia will be helping Dr. Anna in reaching out to global alumni to invite them to be featured. She will also assist our program in building relations with Korean alumni and parents. The event was followed by a mini ice-breaking game led by Afiqah and Alisia. All SAGA members were given a moment to share their highlights of their recent winter break. Some were able to travel to different parts of the world while some shared their moments of celebrating Christmas and New Year in a snowy weather for the first time. All of the SAGA members were seen to be more comfortable with one another after the game ended.
The meeting was continued with a panel session to the Top 4 SAGA members who were able to reach out to their alumni the most. Panelists include Yifan, Eunhae, Lorine and Ronnie. Dr. Anna began a brief session for them to share their advice and tips on how they were able to reach out to their alumni. Some of the experiences shared were as below:
“The alumni started to respond to me once I sent them a reminder through my email. They were very helpful and they even gave some tips and advices to me.”
-Lorine-
“During the winter break, I met my alumni in-person and that’s how I was able to interview so many of them. They even shared with me their LinkedIn and connections to other alumni.”
-Yifan-
Dr. Anna concluded the discussion by mentioning how the students shouldn’t feel embarrassed in reaching out to alumni as they are all doing this for a good cause. Dr. Anna later handed out gifts to the winners as they very much deserve them.
The next agenda of the meeting was for the SAGA updates. Afiqah presented the new SAGA account page on Instagram and the sweatshirt design that she created along with Hamza. Jeff then reminded all SAGA members to check their business cards for any corrections.
We later moved on to a different agenda where Dr. Anna presented the new meeting format where all SAGA members will be divided into 5 different groups. The groups will be randomly assigned after new SAGA members of SP 22 join our program on Jan. 24. In each meeting, a group will be chosen to share their tips or experience in reaching out to their alumni. The group will also has to recommend one alumni to be featured on the Global Alumni Spotlight. Dr. Anna also mentioned that by the end of the semester, the group that is able to reach out to the highest amount of alumni will receive an award. Not only that, students who are able to reach out to 12 alumni will also be rewarded with a laptop bag. With this new incentive, we really hope it can widen our horizons and strengthen our relationship within the SAGA members.
The last discussion in the meeting was about a reminder of the important dates which is included below:
-
- Biweekly meetings
- Next Meeting: Monday, January 24, 2022, 4.30-6.00pm
- Other: February 7 & 21; April 4 & 18
- Global Career Workshop
- February 25, 2.00-5.00pm (2-3pm offers networking opportunities between alumni and students – SAGA members are encouraged to connect with our global alumni at HUB 132 Flex Theater
- Contact Reports and Video Competitions
- Extended to March 21, 2022
- SAGA Award Ceremony
- Thursday, April 28, 11.30am-1.30pm in HUB Heritage Hall
- Biweekly meetings
Before we ended our meeting, Dr. Anna led our “Expand Horizons” motto cheers. We then ate Panera and the meeting was adjourned at 6.00pm. Overall, the meeting went as well as expected.
Expand Horizons!
Author: Afiqah Razak