The Alumni Club Network-ing Reception on Thursday, September 13 launched the be-ginning of the new Real World series program for seniors, or-ganized by Alumni Relations, Career Services and Institu-tional Advancement. Previously a one-weekend event for seniors in the end of January, this year’s Real World program has be-come a series of events spread out throughout the year that ef-fectively brings active Colgate alumni back to campus to en-gage students, showcasing their respective career fields and pro-viding them with useful guid-ance and information about life after college.

The Alumni Council, which comes to Colgate about three times each school year, was on campus this past Thursday and worked with approximately 100 seniors in a mock-interview pro-gram. During this session, seniors were able to meet with alumni and experience a 45-minute in-terview with 15-minutes of valu-able feedback. A networking re-ception in the Ho Science Center Atrium followed, where students were able to meet with alumni representing a variety of fields, including business/finance, com-munications, science/technology, healthcare, energy/sustainability and several others. Seniors who attended the reception were able to connect with alumni of all ages and not only learn about different career paths, but also glean infor-mation regarding success after a Colgate education.

“The idea behind the net-working is to just start the con-versation and get students to learn from alumni experiences that they had and be able to draw on them,” Alumni Engage-ment Coordinator Kimberly George said.

The primary goal in planning to expand the Real World program over this past year was to begin engaging seniors earlier in or-der to allow them to better explore all of their potential career options.

Alumni Relations, Career Services and Institutional Advancement are looking forward to hosting their upcoming events this fall, including Senior Night at the Palace Theater on Friday, September 21, where seniors will be able to reconnect with the Link staff of the Class of 2013. Additionally, special events are scheduled for Homecoming Weekend, October 12 and 13, when seniors will be able to par-ticipate in a variety of activities, includ-ing a Real World luncheon with Trustees and alumni, co-sponsored by the Presi-dent’s Club. Students will also be able to experience mock interviews and at-tend another Real World reception with alumni in the Hall of Presidents, con-cluding the weekend with “Coffee & Conversations” on Saturday morning at Donovan’s Pub. Other changes to the program include the addition of a Real Life series event for sophomores at the end of January, during the former Real Life program for seniors.

“The elements of the Real World Program are pretty much all there [in the Real World series] – there’s the connection with the alum-ni component, learning about careers and the networking…but instead of being all packed into one weekend, it’s spread across various weekends and through different events,” George said.

The revised Real World series has thus far generated much positive feedback and a schedule for spring programs will be released later this semester.

Contact Kerry Houston at [email protected].