What is an Alumni Association?

Whether you are a student in a university or high school, building a professional network is already crucial to improve your current or future professional integration. LinkedIn, family, past professional experiences... are all ways to develop your professional network. But do you know the scope and advantages of a high school alumni association? We will tell you all about it!

 

Alumni: definition

 

An alumni association is composed of alumni, even recent graduates from a management school, business school or any other major institution of higher education. This network may be international, especially if the alumni have followed their careers abroad. It makes no distinction of campus: all are part of this alumni network.

At the IPAG Business School, our IPAG Alumni association is formed by no less than 11,500 former students and graduates of our school. An alumni department, working closely with the corporate relations department, is entirely dedicated to the animation of our network: afterworks, events and meetings are held in order to preserve cohesiveness and solidarity within our large international network.

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Why join an alumni association when you're a student?

 

By joining one of the most prestigious Grandes Ecoles, we recommend that you take advantage of its notoriety by getting involved in this alumni network, which can only bring you benefits:

• Getting a foot in professional world by making contacts that could potentially recruit you during your internship and perhaps even after graduation.
• Building an increasingly broad and diverse network will allow you to develop your career opportunities, whether your professional project is to work for a company or whether you have chosen entrepreneurship.
• To develop one's professional project thanks to meetings with former students who will be able to talk about their professional experience following successful completion of their studies at IPAG.

At IPAG, our graduate network is vibrant so that you can maintain your professional network throughout the year. Indeed, numerous meetings between graduates are organized to help you broaden your horizons and create new career opportunities. Three to four times a year, during an afterwork session in France but also abroad, you will have the opportunity to meet up with your classmates during reunions based on friendship, cooperation and sharing. These events are all opportunities for you to share your experiences, get support for your projects and discover new ones.

IPAG's Business Circles are also at your fingertips: human resources, marketing, finance, etc. Meet the members of the Business Circles network at several annual meetings to discuss developments in your sector and share advice and best practices.

 

Why are alumni associations so important within a business school?

 

Alumni networks are an intrinsic part of the student and associative life in higher education institutions. They are also known to be richer and more active in business schools. For students, as for companies, this network, also known as an alumni association or alumni network, is of great use: sharing the values acquired during studies but also recruitment, good knowledge of the potential of the school's graduates. It is also one of the major advantages of joining a business school. But why is the presence of this network within an institution so important?

• It allows the foundation of a community of students who have attended a business school together and, above all, it encourages students and graduates to rally to shared values. From the BTS to the Bachelor's degree, through the Master's degree, regardless of the program, everyone is involved and it also makes exchanges between current and past classes easier.
• Graduates are a school's first ambassadors. The alumni network thus constitutes the school's recognition. Furthermore, this network is also often called upon to meet various criteria of business school rankings.
• There are many opportunities for a business graduate: the alumni association network also helps him or her to find a job, and for former graduates it facilitates the recruitment of their colleagues by sharing job offers internally.
• Financial support for students is also important: from the apprenticeship tax paid by graduates at the head of companies to specific grants awarded to students or cultural projects, aid and support is one of the benefits of nurturing and running this network.

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As a conclusion, joining an alumni network for a student and leading it for a school are essential for all the stakeholders present in this process. The alumni association is an intense source of enrichment for your professional network and authentically conveys the values and principles of an institution.