My name is Steven Rignoli, a junior Business Management major here at Albertus. This semester, I began my internship with the Alumni Office. One of my first projects was creating and managing the 90 More Years Campaign. With the College celebrating its 90th anniversary, we wanted to not only celebrate the past 90 years but also the next 90 years. We organized and encouraged the entire campus community to participate in the first-ever Week of Giving. This fundraising campaign encouraged the community to “Give for 90 more years” of Albertus academic, athletic, and student life by contributing to the College’s Annual Fund. Our goal was to bring the largest number of donations in one week in the history of the College. We asked members of the Albertus community to fill out signs with things that they wanted to celebrate 90 More Years of and their favorite memories. Some celebrating 90 More Years of tradition, excellence and community, while others focused on building futures and student success. Campus departments also got involved to celebrate athletics, art, and campus activities. Alumni reflected on the connections and friendships they had made. Sports team and clubs got together to show their school spirit too! The campaign was extremely successful. It was great to see everyone come together to celebrate the past and future of Albertus.
My second project was to begin working on a career panel series. Panels will run throughout the year, each time featuring alumni from different majors. The goal of these Career Conversations events is to allow students to have a Q & A session with graduates from their major to learn about life after graduation and their career paths. These events will be a great opportunity to talk and network with alumni, who may be in a career that they are pursuing and to see what graduates are doing with their degrees. To begin working on the project, I collaborated with the Office of Career Services and Business Department to begin planning how we wanted to structure the event. We decided that it would be a 2 hour event, with the first hour being an introduction of the alumni and a Q&A session. The second hour will be a networking reception. Each panel will feature around 4-5 graduates. Our next step was to begin looking for alumni that would want to participate. We wanted to have graduates from a variety of career fields to help best represent the department. Not only will these events be a good way for students to learn more about their career fields, but it is a way to keep our alumni and students connected. The first panel was held on October 8 and highlighted business majors and included four alumni a Director of Quality Assurance, Chief Compliance Officer, Managing Director and Account Specialist, in industries including accounting, information technology, finance, and aviation.
We are currently seeking alumni that would like to participate in these events. If you are interested, please contact the Alumni Office or the Office of Career Services.
Through this internship experience so far and being a member of the Student Alumni Association, I have learned a lot about the importance of networking. I have also learned more about the advancement field, and can see myself potentially pursuing it as a future career. Through this internship, I have already learned so much and have been allowed many terrific opportunities. I look forward to continuing through the end of the semester and meeting more alumni!
