9:05 am. Yesterday morning I was working on reviewing papers for Nanoscale when I received a call from Mike Hunnicutt, a Duke chemistry alum on the graduate board of visitors. A committee of board members has been tasked with figuring out how we can further alumni engagement, and he wanted to talk about how we can come up with a program that does so. After discussing a number of activities that we’ve done, I noted that there’s been a lot of discussion of activities but not of where we ultimately want these activities to lead. What is our vision for what alumni engagement looks like in an ideal world? He liked the idea of trying to formulate a vision to guide the development of a program to achieve that vision.
My suggestion of a vision was inspired by this book I’ve been listening to called “The Art of Possibility.” One of the chapters, called “Giving an A”, relates how one of the authors in the book, a conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and a teach of young musicians, told his students to write letters at the beginning of the class to describe why they got an A in his course, and how they became the person they would love to be. Thus, I thought it would be good to create a vision of Alumni engagement that we love. In another section of the book, in a chapter entitled “Creating Frameworks for Possibility”, the other author, a social worker and therapist, lays out the criteria for creating a vision of possibility:
1. A vision articulates a possibility.
2. A vision fulfills a desire fundamental to humankind that does not exclude any person.
3. A vision does not refer to right and wrong.
4. A vision is stated as a picture for all time.
5. A vision is free-standing, it does not refer to a better future or past.
6. A vision is a long line of possibility radiating outward, it invites infinite means of expression.
7. Speaking a vision transforms the speaker, removing barriers to the realization of the vision.
Examples of Visions include:
1. For an international food company: “A vision of a world in ethnical sustainable partnership.”
2. For home products company: “The possibility of joy in the everyday.”
This is the vision I came with for Alumni engagement:
A Vision for Alumni Engagement with Duke Chemistry:
A Life-Long Partnership with our Students
Specific Aspects:
- We have a strong network of Alumni who graduates can easily contact for career advice and employment opportunities.
- We have financial support from Alumni and their organizations for the department’s priority areas for improvement, and to publicly recognize such support.
For example priority areas: https://chemistry.mit.edu/support-chemistry/funds-to-support/
For recognition: https://chemistry.mit.edu/support-chemistry/meet-our-major-supporters/
- Alumni engage with graduate students to impart wisdom gained over the course of their career.
- Alumni feel their department is continuing to support their goals.
- Alumni who have made outstanding contributions receive public recognition by the department.
- We have ongoing discussions with Alumni about ways in which we can support one another.
Creating this vision made me realize that our students are our alumni, and vice versa. Therefore, developing a strong partnership might start with finding out what our students who most like to receive from the department but are not getting.
After dinner yesterday we decided to go to Maple view Farm ice cream. Keira got black cherry, and I ordered chocolate chip cookie dough, but gave it to Yingying. We also got a pint of double chocolate that I ate some of. The chocolate chip cookie dough was super creamy. After eating, we went outside to play with some bubbles. The kids chased the bubbles around on the grass. Just as we were deciding to leave, a thunderstorm arrived. Perfect timing.
Turkey leg.
Seems no need to write about today tomorrow..:
well today isn’t done yet:)