Alumni Association creates new ways to make an impact on students

For 70 years, the members of UB’s Engineering and Applied Sciences Alumni Association (UBEAA) have served as a channel through which the school’s alumni can communicate, network and realize their professional potential.

In recent years, the organization’s board has sought to focus not only on their crucial role in meeting the needs of current alumni but guiding and supporting future ones, particularly in the midst of the global pandemic.

“Our immediate goal for the UBEAA is to make an impact on the students that come after us — so that they can boldly take up the reins of our shared legacy,” says Jordan Walbesser (BS '07 Computer Engineering, JD '10), current president of UBEAA. He commenced his role in 2019, succeeding Kurt Bessel (BA '07 German, BS '07 Aerospace, MS '08 Mechanical).

From 2016 to 2019, Bessel presided over an era of what he calls “refocused vision,” during which the organization looked inward.

“UBEAA is and has always been a great hub for connecting alumni with each other,” says Bessel. “But I thought our greatest opportunity for impact truly lay in what we could offer current students.”

Knowing that this link was essential, the board, under Bessel and now Walbesser, asked: what does that connection look like?

The answer was to create space — relationally, time-wise, and physically — for students and alumni to connect.

“We recognize that the engineering curriculum is demanding,” says Walbesser. “So, the UBEAA is responding to two needs: helping students adjust to the rigors of UB's program and supplementing the engineering curriculum with opportunities to learn soft skills that will make grads more capable and marketable in the workplace.”

And now, the group has taken on helping support student needs — in the present and future — during the pandemic. “We’ve adjusted our programming to support students through online meetups and pushed electronic tools like UB’s Career Connector Network,” says Walbesser. “And we're also aligning with Dean Lewis's goal of trying to make every student feel known. I challenged the UBEAA chairs to come up with creative solutions to help meet that goal.”

Tim van Oss (BS ’14, MS ’16 Civil Engineering), UBEAA secretary and chair of the Sports and Leisure Committee, says, “Since COVID-19, we’ve made a conscious effort to tie mentorship into every event we host.”

A cornerstone of how UBEAA meets student needs is running four distinct, active committees: Wellness and Mentoring, Professionalism, Sports and Leisure, and Awards.

Both the Sports and Leisure and Awards committees will be familiar to alumni of yore for the longtime, essential roles they’ve played. The Sports and Leisure committee can be found at football and basketball games coordinating Engineer Alley, while the Awards committee gives out annual student scholarships and the esteemed Engineer of the Year award.

However, the board recognized that students could use support beyond scholarships — and that UBEAA members could play a role in providing it. Thus were born the Professionalism Committee and the Wellness and Mentoring Committee, both formed during the 2016 revamp, and both of which have been more important than ever during the disconnected time of the pandemic.

The Professionalism Committee aims to round out students’ rigorous technical training with soft skills prep, providing how-tos on everything from networking to professional wear. The committee was formed in response to alumni of all ages’ first-hand experience of how companies’ hiring criteria and expectations had broadened beyond the technical.

“We want to give alumni ways to give back by sharing their time and experiences,” says Walbesser.

“It’s rewarding to be giving back to UB’s engineering program, and paying it forward when interacting with current UB engineering students,” says Briana Tom (BS '17 Chemical Engineering/MBA '17), one of the committee’s leaders. “I love being able to share my experiences with current students, so that they don’t make the same mistakes that I did. Everyone on the UBEAA board is very dedicated to making our next generation of UB engineers and applied scientists better and better.”

The impact, unwavering dedication, and ingenuity of UBEAA members has never been more apparent than in 2020. "When the pandemic hit, we realized that we had a strong enough organization and board to go virtual without any hiccups,” says Walbesser. “I was reminded that the UBEAA is full of servant-leaders that are willing and able to rise up and meet challenges like the pandemic. Lastly, I realized how much smaller the world becomes when we leverage technology to connect our students and alumni from around the globe — and we plan to use that to our advantage in the future.”

The committee recruits UBEAA members to volunteer and speak at School of Engineering and Applied Sciences events, such as the annual Career Perspectives and Networking Conference and the SEAS 360° Certificate of Professional Development program.

“Entering industry can be scary, and being able to present yourself to a potential employer and colleagues is important,” says Tom. “Not only does the student benefit from the 360° program personally, but a potential employer will view the student as a more viable candidate.”

As for their other work, the Professionalism Committee doesn’t just seek to engage students but is thoughtful and creative in how they do so. Rather than holding resume roundtables or mock interviews, the Professionalism Committee hosts at least one outing a semester, coupling fun and social learning.

At their annual Movie Mingle event, they have an alumni speaker on a topic related to professionalism, while also teaching and encouraging the students to informally network with the alumni in attendance. The committee hosted a panel of alumni and HR managers at their ice-skating event to answer students’ questions about job search and hiring processes.

Opportunities for support are rounded out by the Wellness and Mentoring Committee, which puts on events that give students an open place to talk about their stress and concerns, and connect with alumni who’ve been in their shoes.

“We check in with students about how it's going for them and tell them that others have been through stressful semesters — and it's okay to ask for help if they need it,” says Courtney Bentley (BS '14, MS '16 Civil Engineering), one of the committees’ leaders. “In the past, we typically held our events in fun, casual environments on and off campus so that it was easy for students to stop by, chat and relax for a while.”

Past activities have included ice cream socials and fireside chats and s’mores at campus firepits. In the spring of 2020, UBEAA also hosted a Zoom mentorship roundtable where alums were split up into small groups with students to help be a sounding board and give them someone to talk to. Realizing students were craving in-person connection, they also led a hike in fall of 2020, where 17 students, and four UBEAA members made the trek to the Eternal Flame trail at Chestnut Ridge Park.

“For many students, the hike was their first time off campus all semester. They were eager to interact with other students and us alums even if it was from a little distance and behind a mask,” says van Oss. “It was a great opportunity to encourage them to keep up their hard work and remember to take a break from their studies to enjoy the natural beauty around us all.”

“I love the outdoors so I was very excited to see an engineering alumni event that was a hike,” says Ellise Blake, a junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major. “I enjoyed meeting new people and seeing what life after college is like in different engineering disciplines.”

The goal of facilitating more opportunities for casual connection led the group to want to create a space specifically for alumni-student connection on campus.

“A few years ago, we worked with (then) Dean Folks' office to collaborate on renovating a space in an engineering building that would serve the purpose of drop-in style socialization,” says Bessel.

That space came to life in Bell Hall, where UBEAA funding helped to create a welcoming lounge area in the northwest entrance to the building. Named the Legacy Lounge, the space also showcases scholarship winners, Engineer of the Year recipients, information about the UBEAA, a large screen digital monitor to showcase UBEAA activities, and a dedicated conference room where UBEAA members can meet together and with students.

Bessel says, “What I needed as a student — and I found out that many other students needed too — was merely some perspective from our future selves: professional engineers. And when we facilitate those conversations, the messages students hear can make all the difference.”