Latin School of Chicago

30 Connect. Mentor. Repeat. I n 2010, with a background in both law and career services at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Stephanie Chu signed on as Latin's assistant director of development for alumni relations and began implementing outreach programs that connect alumni not only within the same graduating class, but also across generations, within geographical areas, within professional fields and with current Latin students. "Alums may be 15 to 20 years apart, but the connections across the years have been amazing," Chu said. e Alumni Office's long-standing mission is to nurture bonds that developed for alumni as students – among classmates, with faculty and with Latin School. In recent years, the program also has focused on growing new opportunities for interaction within the school's broader alumni network – relationships that can benefit alumni throughout their lifetimes. Latin has 6,600 alumni (Students who attended Latin for at least one year are considered alumni). Forty percent live in the Chicago area, and 30 percent graduated in the last 15 years. ose are big numbers, but the alumni relations outreach under Chu's direction strives to be personal and comprehensive. "Our three focal points are community, communication and relevance," Chu explained. e breadth of alumni programming is impressive given limited time and resources. Chu, Teresa Sutter, who divides her time between alumni relations and research, and Stephanie Seweryn, assistant director of development for annual giving, plan and organize approximately 25 events every year. e Alumni Association board of directors takes lead roles in helping recruit speakers and attendees for many of the events. Now in its fourth year, the annual Life After Latin program connects upper school students with Chicago-based alumni. Students choose from panel discussions with alumni speakers in different careers and learn about the breadth of jobs in a given field, the realities of day-to-day work and the rarely linear nature of career paths. In addition, out-of-town alumni sometimes visit the school to meet with students at a Life After Latin lunch. In the past year, Chris Freund and Jonah Levey, entrepreneuring classmates from the Class of '90 working in Vietnam, shared their experiences, and Annika Iltis '97 met with students to talk about her filmmaking experience when she came to town to screen the documentary, e Barkley Marathons: e Race at Eats Its Young. Designed for college Romans but open to all alumni, the Leveraging Your Latin Network events guide the youngest alums through using Latin's alumni resources and starting to build a network. Last year, participants worked with alumni to draft and practice an elevator pitch. is year, they could meet with alums for one-on-one coaching sessions. Also new is a 30-minute virtual mentoring program. Meanwhile, the annual Latin Professionals Evening is a true networking event featuring alumni speakers and time to network by industry. is winter, the first industry-specific networking group launched in real estate, and Chu hopes to see more of these tailored groups develop in coming years. ese new opportunities come in addition to the long-running regional alumni events that are held several times per year in different cities, and the major alumni gathering of the year: Homecoming & Reunion weekend in the fall. Attend any event as an alum, and you will find yourself wearing an orange square Latin button that easily identifies your relationship to the school. Whether speaking to prospective families at Open Houses, visiting classes during Alumni Week, serving as mentors or helping prepare upper school students for life beyond Latin, the network of alumni is growing and strong. "We are giving them a whole community, beyond just their fellow graduates," Chu noted. And that whole community is for a lifetime.

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