Alumni News
fall 2008
Academic Alumni Network Finds Fast Following
Four hundred political science graduates can't be wrong.
That’s the word from the Boston College Alumni Association, which this summer launched a new alumni network that will reconnect graduates to the University and each other through their former field of study.
The Boston College Political Science Network, or BCPSAN, will serve as a pilot program to “continue the academic discourses alumni enjoyed as students and unite them through the one thing that all graduates have in common: the rich intellectual life of the BC campus," says Jameson J. Dempsey ’05, the network’s alumni founder.
More than 400 alumni worldwide have already joined and receive the network’s quarterly e-newsletter, Postscript, which offers readers exclusive interviews with figures such as former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns ’78. Political science-related alumni events, including potential networking functions, are planned for 2009.
"The aim is to have BCPSAN partner with regional alumni chapters and the Alumni Association’s Career Services Committee to bring notable speakers to a wide audience," says Alumni Association Special Advisor Robert Sherwood. "We hope some of the speakers will be faculty members, many of whom have voiced their desire to reconnect with former students."
One such professor is Dennis Hale, who also serves as the network's on-campus faculty coordinator. "There are some interesting possibilities for cooperation," says Hale. "Internships are one obvious area, but we hope to find other ways to put current students in touch with alumni."
Dempsey says BCPSAN already has an alumni volunteer in place to coordinate internship opportunities that graduates may have for current students. “We want to create a true community where alumni work together with faculty and students," he says.
Given the high level of interest, the Alumni Association has facilitated alumni and faculty efforts to launch a similar Communication Alumni Network. Like BCPSAN, the network is open to all graduates who work in the field, not merely communication majors.
Sherwood says the Alumni Association will accommodate additional networks as requests for them arise and as resources become available.
For more information, visit www.bc.edu/alumni/affinity.