When the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, possibly stay connected to our community of alumni around the world when so much of our engagement had traditionally been based on in-person events such as reunions and receptions? Fortunately, as platforms such as Zoom became more widely known and expanded their functions to meet the changing needs of socially-distanced communities, we saw an opportunity to not only stay engaged with our alumni community, but create events available to alums in different countries around the world simultaneously. And thus, the ASIJ Alumni Connect: Industry Meetup initiative was born. As a brief refresher, Alumni Connect is a series of events in which alumni who share an interest in a particular industry
attend a panel presentation by a diverse group of fellow alumni followed by breakout rooms for small group discussions with the various panelists to make further connections and speak in depth about the topic. The relatively small scale of the events is a draw for many alums, as it provides the chance to get to know others on the call. “I enjoyed connecting to alumni interested in the industry and meeting every participant,” shared George Mimura ’83 of the most recent Alumni Connect: Industry Meetup, indicating that he would have liked even more time in the breakout rooms to discuss in a small group. When we launched Alumni Connect, we had hoped that the format would make these events more accessible to ASIJ’s global alumni community by eliminating travel costs and minimizing the impact of differences in time zone.
THE AMBASSADOR \\ FALL/WINTER 2021
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