Thinking K-20: How to build education connections that last

Colleges and universities invest heavily in recruiting students, the first-year-experience, supporting their persistence, and of course celebrating their graduation. Yet too often, alumni engagement begins only after commencement.

This suggests one chapter of our relationship has ended, and here’s how we see you now.

There is life after 30 years in K12 education. I know because I am now in my 33rd year as an educator, and my journey into higher education has shown me that some of the most important lessons I learned throughout my career transcend classrooms, schools, and even graduation.

That journey is also personal. As a first-generation college student, I know the power of education to open doors you may not have known existed. I also know the importance of having people who help you see possibilities that you may not yet be able to see.

That perspective has shaped the way I have approached education throughout my career. For first-generation students, alumni engagement can provide more than inspiration. It can provide access to the informal knowledge, professional networks, career pathways, and institutional relationships that other students may inherit through family or social connections.

K-20 in real time

For the first 23 years, I served as an educator in one of the largest school districts in the country. I supported students, teachers, families, and communities while solving problems, building programs, and leading schools.

My work also extended beyond the schoolhouse through mentoring aspiring and current leaders, serving as a district trainer, and supporting leadership development. Those experiences reinforced something that has remained constant throughout my career: education is about developing people, building relationships, and creating opportunities for others to grow.

Then, I had the opportunity to lead a university K–12 laboratory school for seven years, and my understanding of education was transformed. I began to see education through a broader lens, one that connected school leadership with higher education, research, innovation, and partnership. I was thinking K–20 in real time.

Leading a laboratory school meant being more than a school-based leader. My responsibilities extended into the university, which also required leading a school district held to the same standards as other public school districts across the state. It was a unique intersection of two educational worlds.

Our high school students were fully immersed in the university as full-time college students. Students engaged in award-winning research alongside university faculty, having their work published in peer-reviewed journals. I saw firsthand what was possible when the traditional boundaries between educational systems were removed.

Those seven years became the bridge between the first chapter of my career and the one I did not yet know was waiting for me.

I transitioned into a unique role as director of strategic partnerships, assisting with special projects across the university. For the first time in three decades, I was not responsible for the daily operation of a school. That change gave me something I had craved but rarely had the time for: the opportunity to sit, listen, observe, and reflect.

One of my favorite projects during that transition was hosting a podcast called “Once an Owl, Always an Owl.” I sat across from alumni, educators, donors, and community members and asked them to tell their stories.

After years of being in the middle of the action, my role was no longer to lead the conversation, solve the problem, or determine what came next. It was simply to listen.

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Former students spoke about teachers they still remembered, alumni shared experiences that shaped who they became, community members explained why they remained invested, and donors described why they chose to give back. Listening to their stories changed the way I understood the lasting impact of education and the relationships that keep people connected long after they leave the classroom.

Their stories were different, but the common thread was remarkably consistent.
Relationships mattered.

Early in the experience

From my new office, I also had the opportunity to observe a university leader who was building something special. She had transitioned from another area of the university and was rebuilding alumni and community engagement after several years of interim leadership.

I watched as she brought a new vision to the department and, more importantly, built relationships with graduates, students, families, donors, faculty, community leaders, and colleagues. Connections that had begun years, and sometimes decades, earlier were being renewed while new ones were being created.

Eventually, I had the opportunity to join that work, beginning the next chapter of my career and an entirely new learning experience.

I began to understand something I had never fully considered before: Alumni and community engagement can be just as important to the educational journey as the relationships that begin with a child’s first teacher.

Consider the full journey of a student. A prekindergarten teacher may be one of the first people outside a child’s family to help that student feel a sense of belonging.

Elementary and secondary educators build confidence, curiosity, and connection. Higher education helps students develop knowledge, independence, professional identity, and purpose.

Rethinking the Student-to-Alumni Continuum

Universities can begin by asking three questions:

1. When does alumni engagement begin? If the answer is after graduation, we may be starting too late.
2. Where are alumni embedded in the undergraduate experience? Consider mentoring, career services, classrooms, internships, research, student organizations, and first-generation initiatives.
3. Who owns lifelong engagement? If alumni engagement resides exclusively within advancement, institutions may be missing opportunities to connect it to student success, academic affairs, enrollment, and workforce preparation.

As a first-generation college student, this resonates deeply with me. Sometimes seeing someone who has already traveled a path you hope to follow can make that future feel attainable.

When we connect students with alumni earlier, we provide not only professional networks but also aspirational examples. Students can see who they might become while beginning to understand that their relationship with the university extends far beyond a four-year experience.

Alumni engagement early in the college experience can strengthen the student-success ecosystem by connecting current students to mentoring, internships, career exploration, professional networks, and industry-specific social capital.

A place to belong for a lifetime

One lesson has followed me through every chapter of my career: people may not remember every program we created or initiative we launched, but they remember the people who made a difference.

They remember the teacher who believed in them, the principal who knew their name, the professor who opened their eyes to a new possibility, or, years later, the alumnus who helped them secure an interview or the mentor who offered career advice.

That is why I have come to believe that alumni and community engagement is not simply an advancement function. It is part of the educational continuum.

Today, I see a prekindergarten student entering a classroom for the first time and an alumnus returning to campus decades later as part of the same story. At every stage, we are asking similar questions: Do I belong here? Does someone know me? Does my experience matter? Is there still a place for me?

We have the opportunity to create institutions where students become alumni, alumni become mentors, and each generation reaches back to create opportunities for the next. My career has taught me the importance of helping people feel that they belong. Higher education has taught me just how long that belonging can last.

Thinking K–20 means seeing education not as a series of separate systems, but as a connected journey built around people and relationships. A student becomes a graduate. A graduate becomes a professional, mentor, advocate, or community leader. One day, that same graduate may reach back and help another student see possibilities they had not yet imagined for themselves.

Perhaps that is the opportunity before us in higher education. Instead of asking how we bring alumni back after graduation, we should ask how we create a sense of connection and belonging so meaningful that they never feel they left.

Because the strongest educational communities do more than prepare students to graduate. They give them a place to belong for a lifetime.