Nationally Recognized Alumni Workplace Program That Brings Rutgers to You

Building scarlet connections between colleagues is a powerful thing for employees and their companies. Discover what happens when you bring this win-win arrangement into your work environment.

Alumni Workplace Engagement

Alumni Workplace Engagement (AWE) builds bridges between Rutgers alumni and industry-leading companies. AWE’s customized programs connect Rutgers alumni within an organization while providing unparalleled access on our Four Pillars of Success:

  • Talent Acquisition
  • Career/Professional Development
  • Mentoring
  • Networking

By partnering with AWE, companies can make the most of their talent pipeline by building new opportunities for Rutgers alumni to network, learn, achieve, and succeed. AWE helps companies:

  • Attract new alumni who have cutting-edge industry knowledge
  • Support employee retention by fostering networking and training of alumni
  • Act on high-level corporate goals by fostering community, diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Develop key strategic partnerships with Rutgers faculty and students in the industry
  • Promote their business to organizations and individuals associated with the university

For an example of a productive program, read about Bristol Myers Squibb’s partnership with Rutgers that hosted a STEM summer camp for middle school students.

A New Approach

Imagine a bridge that connects three islands: a university, a company, and the university’s graduates who are employees at that company. Alumni Workplace Engagement is that bridge. Launched in 2019, AWE incorporates company culture and corporate objectives to achieve new levels of engagement across all academic units and centers universitywide. It creates thriving relationships so that these areas are no longer islands but powerful partners for innovation and achievement. This pioneering approach to alumni engagement brings the university to a business and its employees to build scarlet connections in their workplace:

  • Among Rutgers graduates working at a company, providing mentorship opportunities, career development programming, and more
  • Between a company and the vast Rutgers network of internal and external partners and resources, including Rutgers academic units and faculty, students and graduates, and Rutgers industry partners
  • Between AWE corporate partners and prospective partners, with companies helping each other develop alumni groups and understand how AWE can help them grow

A strong Rutgers cohort benefits employees and employers alike because it promotes networking, team building, career advancement, and continuing education and training. As Rutgers AWE grows, it continues to expand its reach to benefit other corporations, industries, and the communities they serve. AWE has partnerships in place at JPMorgan Chase, Prudential, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Deloitte Consulting, and Sanofi.

AWE won the 2020 Gold Accolade Award for Alumni Relations and Affinity Programs by CASE District II and was recently profiled in a University-Industry Engagement Advisor feature article.

Learn more: Watch Alumni Workplace Engagement: Building Scarlet Connections at Your Company.

Alumni Workplace Engagement Business Forum

One of the flagship programs from AWE, the Business Forum is a series of webinars featuring dynamic alumni recognized as experts in their industry, sharing insights and ideas on strategies used in some of the world’s largest organizations. These powerful conversations provide insight into what drives these organizations and their people to progress on important issues that influence the business environment and our everyday world. Recent events and insights include:

A Real Conversation About Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: Moderated by Lloyd Freeman, chief diversity and inclusion officer at the legal firm Buchanan Ingersoll, and featuring Veronica Velazquez RBS’14, senior global inclusion and diversity manager at Expedia Group, Michele Meyer-Shipp UCN’89, chief people and culture officer for Major League Baseball, and Brenda Wagner RC’91, GSNB’93, chief diversity and inclusion officer at LabCorp

The Workplace 2021: Building Back Better: Featuring Jennifer Ughetta SMLR’02, executive vice president and chief talent officer of global retail markets at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Deb Hughes RC’83, senior vice president of transformation communications and change management and human resources at ADP, and Willie Grant SMLR’94, vice president of human resources and enabling functions at Bristol Myers Squibb

Related Resources:

The AWE Advantage

Alumni Workplace Engagement programming centers on the Four Pillars—networking, mentoring, professional development, and talent acquisition. The magic begins when AWE meets with your company to recruit executive champions to identify key goals for each of these pillars, all of which guides customized programming which aligns world-class Rutgers expertise with company priorities. AWE customized programs include:

  • Lunch-and-learn webinars with Rutgers experts that are delivered internally to alumni within their specific companies and tailored to address the audience’s front-of-mind topics
  • Workshops and training, including professional development and career-specific programs that build connections and leverage Rutgers experts universitywide
  • Community service projects designed around employee concerns and company culture
  • Alumni networking groups that are staff-coached and volunteer-led
  • Leadership events for sharing of best practices and innovations
  • Mentorship programs within companies and with Rutgers students and interns
  • Talent acquisition opportunities via alumni groups and events

Learn more: Read Rutgers Alumni Initiative Brings Engagement Programs to the Workplace in Tech Transfer Central’s University-Industry Engagement Week.

Meet the AWE Team

Our engagement experts will help you and your company build new connections, develop new entry points to important university areas, and link you with those in the Rutgers alumni community who can help you promote collaboration with external resources and team building among staff and mentorship across all channels.

Contact us to learn how you and your company can benefit from AWE in each of these areas—whatever your industry, needs, and ambition. To get the connections flowing, we invite all interested parties to schedule an introductory phone call, video chat, in-person visit, or request a brochure.

Diane Nagy DC’87, RBS’87, Assistant Director
848-932-2251
diane.nagy@ruf.rutgers.edu