A new Virginia networking system for alumni and students will be released for alumni on April 1, and the site will be available to students at the end of the semester.
The site - run by the Office of Alumni Relations - began as an idea fostered by Gwen Harrington, the young alumni coordinator for alumni relations, as she met with alumni coordinators at other universities to examine their programs for keeping their own alumni engaged.
"We looked at universities that were successfully using this tool to engage students and staff and also help their alumni network, but we wanted to expand upon it;" Harrington said.
The main focus of the newly introduced Hokie Nation Network will be for alumni to keep in contact to the Tech community and for students to look for posted job offers, post their resumes, and look for rental possibilities around town.
It is being introduced as a social and professional networking site designed exclusively for Hokies, according to the official press release.
"It is a combination of Facebook and LinkedIn, a professional networking site," Harrington said.
Career networking is not, however, the sole focus of the site. It will also be possible to post advertisements for housing in Blacksburg along with any other announcements going on in the local community. Alumni will be able to keep up to date on activities on campus and announcements within specific colleges.
"We were looking for a way to better engage young alumni and help them keep in contact with old friends, faculty, staff, and current students," Harrington said, "We will have group pages just like Facebook for student organizations and we're trying to get alumni chapters to create their own groups. We are also working with each college to create their own specific pages."
Alumni relations are publicizing HNN first to alumni in order for them to get acclimated to the site before it introduces the new program to the entire Tech community. They will be able to create profiles similar to Facebook.
"We will be discussing Hokie Nation Network in the university magazine that comes out in April," said Tom Tillar, vice president of Alumni Relation.
May 2009 is the anticipated release for HNN to students, and at that point they can begin posting resumes and contacting members of their alumni chapters in search of internships or jobs for after graduation.
"It is our hope that freshmen will use this site all through their time at Tech to network with alumni," Tillar said.
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It is great to see the Alumni Association taking such an active role in bridging communication for the Hokie Nation. Students should be very excited about the prospect of being better networked with both their peers and other fellow Hokies. Great idea Gwen!
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