Bonding With the Alumni

Every quarter, the executive board of SWE-UCLA meets up with SWE-UCLA alumni, all of who were previous officers for an Alumni Advisory Board Meeting. This fall, we met on Tuesday, October 4 in the Rice Conference Room on the 6^th floor of Boelter Hall. The purpose of this meeting is for current executive officers to network and gain insights from past alumni to continue to be successful and improve events held by SWE-UCLA. Furthermore, these meetings are to keep alumni updated with what is going on with SWE-UCLA.

At this quarter’s meeting, we had a recap of past events, including the success of Open House, Recruitment opportunities, and Mentorship events in the beginning of the year. We also discussed future events, including infosessions and Nationals. In addition to all the events that SWE-UCLA hosts, we also discussed our major project – Team Tech. This year’s Team Tech project was a phone charger; discussion for ideas for next year’s Team Tech is still in the works. We have asked alumni to give us input and ideas for our next Team Tech project. Although a bit early, we discussed Evening with Industry (EWI) company recruitment, and how to effectively get companies interested in our event. A speaker for EWI has already been chosen with a few backups so that the EWI Co-Chairs will not be rushing last minute to find a speaker at our signature event. Even further into the future, we also discussed possibilities for fundraising for our Regional Conference. This year, it will be held in Hawaii and our current funds are not enough to send all of our executive officers to this conference. Lastly, there was talk about our End-of-Year banquet. This year, SWE-UCLA is turning 40, and we’re excited to have alumni come together at this banquet to celebrate all the memories they’ve made with SWE-UCLA. Although still in the planning stages, we’re hoping to contact most alumni from the past and inviting them for a reunion at UCLA. In addition to inviting alumni to our events, we’re hoping to pair alumni mentors with student mentees. This program will encourage mentors and mentees to meet face to face at least once a quarter, and communicate actively online. Overall, the meeting was a success as the current executive board obtained advice from alumni on future events, and how to improve on past ones. We’re looking forward to next quarter’s alumni meeting as well.

Virginia Wei

Internal Vice President