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Alumni and students attend SUSA's first Alumni Mixer

By Emily Thompson

On April 20, 2011

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Students and alumni of the Robert H. Smith Business School mingled on Wednesday night in room 2333 of Van Munching discussing one of the most ominous topics for college students: the future.

But this was a different kind of alumni-student function. All of the alumni graduated within the last four years and the room was filled with chatter between the two groups.

The event, which was set up by the Smith Undergraduate Student Association, was the year's first Alumni Mixer. Young alumni and students were invited to attend the informal event to talk and network in an intimate and casual setting.

Karen Qi, the social programming chair of SUSA, set up the event for a variety of reasons. "The main focus was enforcing alumni relationships with undergraduate students. We made it in a casual setting so they weren't intimidated to come, because most people are inexperienced and not familiar with networking," she said.

Many of SUSA's past alumni events featured old professionals that were working as CEOs and presidents of companies. These events were more intimidating for students and they felt pressure to only show their resume, according to Pratik Dixit, the vice president of administration for SUSA.

"The alumni that students meet tonight won't be the ones to recruit you, but it's the way to get your foot in the door. [The alumni] can get you in touch with a recruiter, and knowing someone always looks good," he said.

Michael Holzheimer, who graduated from the University in 2009 and currently works for ICF International, got his job by meeting an alumnus at a Smith School function and reaching out to him after graduation.

Holzheimer attended the event on Wednesday because he understands the importance of networking and alumni and student relationships and tries to remain involved with the Smith School even though he isn't an undergraduate anymore.

Kendall Sterling, a general business major and a member of the social programming committee, is only a freshman but was able to make a number of connections from the event. "We're given a fact sheet in the beginning as an icebreaker. This is the first event I've done and it's really cool that I can build relationships from it," she said.