ALUMNI NEWS NOTES PROFILE
ALUMNI RELATIONS
Dear Alumni, We are proud of how our alumni responded to the challenges of the pandemic. As the world seemed to come to a halt and we all had to adjust our personal and professional lives, your dedication to our students and university never waivered. The result? Record-setting engagement from alumni volunteers (see our PILLARs Program story on page 26). As the world emerges from the pandemic, your alumni relations team is committed to combining the best of what we learned in the virtual environment to our tried-and-true activities and volunteer opportunities. So please look for a return to in-person regional and on-campus alumni events while we continue our virtual alumni engagement, with Lifelong Learning Skills Days and Operation: Cura Personalis events. Attend a networking event with our students or serve as a virtual mentor from anywhere in the world. Connect with one another on Hoya Gateway to leverage the power of the Georgetown network in your life. Thank you for demonstrating how our Jesuit values continue into our lives well after graduation. We look forward to connecting with you and finding new and innovative ways to strengthen our alumni community. Hoya Saxa, Lauren
Lauren Apicella (MBA’22) Director of Alumni Relations
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Spring 2022
Perfecting Networking Inspired by the connections he made at Georgetown McDonough, Reilly Davis (B’12) is making a career out of linking students and alumni.
When fostering or honing ideas, identifying key talents, or simply learning more about people and institutions, Reilly Davis (B’12) knows that networks are essential catalysts for growth. After all, the connections he made at Georgetown helped shape his career. In turn, Davis launched PeopleGrove, a mentorship and advising platform dedicated to connecting students and alumni, which happens to be the software behind the Hoya Gateway networking platform. After graduating from McDonough with a degree in finance, Davis’ professional journey began at Credit Suisse, where he connected with his future business partner, Adam Saven. “I hadn’t explored other options,” says Davis. “There was a realization that there were so many things I didn’t do in undergrad that I should have done — like talking to more people. I just followed the standard path.” A year into the two-year program with Credit Suisse, Davis realized he was unhappy with his career trajectory and reached out to various contacts for advice and job opportunities. “I went through this process of trying to explore what else is out there, and a lot of it involved connecting with other alumni and setting up coffee meetings,” Davis says. “It was an alumnus that I met who made the referral that got me my next job (at Google).” Once at Google, Davis and Saven started thinking about how to help other students connect with the right people to get the right job — instead of just the next job. “We thought you just study, get great grades, and go on the defined path,” he says. “That’s what got us thinking about how we help people find jobs they love that aren’t msb.georgetown.edu
