The Consortium is grateful to Amber House (Wisconsin, 2014) for sharing insights about plans to revitalize our Consortium alumni network, along with Amy Patel (USC, 2015) and Stella Ashaolu (USC, 2013).

The Consortium’s 50th anniversary in St. Louis was a time of celebration, but also a time for reevaluation. Returning to this year’s Orientation Program & Career Forum as an alumna and corporate partner allowed me to relive the excitement and immense pride that I once felt as an admit to The Consortium and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but also incited a true moment of awakening.

As the event progressed, I began to wonder: How have I lost touch with such an impactful organization so quickly? And did others share my perspective? The truth is, while The Consortium does an excellent job of increasing diversity in business education, Consortium alumni participation has remained a challenge.

During the Consortium’s 50th anniversary gala, the need to re-engage the Consortium alumni network took center stage as The Consortium highlighted the dismal alumni-giving rate. Shocked by these statistics, I began to share my concerns with two University of Southern California Marshall School Business alumni: Amy Patel and Stella Ashaolu.

After further conversation, the three of us soon discovered that we all started our careers in new cities, but lacked the network to engage with other professionals and within the community in general. Although the Consortium has more than 8,500 alumni, we struggled to tap into this network because the alumni networks didn’t have easily accessible channels that we were aware of.

This dilemma prompted us to put a plan in action to re-engage our respective alumni regional networks with a renewed focus on sustainable leadership, applicable professional events, and increased alignment with The Consortium’s mission.

We began to host weekly conference calls to identify the best possible ways toward re-engaging our regional alumni networks. The conference calls prompted us to conduct direct research with alumni, staff and former alumni leaders.

This collaboration resulted in a uniform strategy to re-engage Consortium alumni in three flagship locations: Chicago, Austin and southern California. As we begin to embark on this new journey, we urge all alumni to re-engage with the Consortium, especially those located in one of these flagship locations. Reach out to us on LinkedIn and tell us how you want to be involved.

Sincerely,

• Amber House – Southern California representative.
• Amy Patel – Austin/San Antonio representative.
• Stella Ashaolu – Chicago Metro representative.