Transmission

by Jennifer Lee

As my two-year term as Chair of the Caltech Alumni Association’s Board of Directors comes to a close, I wanted to share some of my reflections over this time and also my thoughts on the future of the organization.

We have evolved as an organization and community over these past two years. As we entered the post-pandemic environment, the Board of Directors made strategic investments to recharge alumni connections with each other and with Caltech through online programming, in-person engagement, and hybrid opportunities. This is no easy feat, considering that we have 26,000+ alumni around the world. These investments were essentially experiments, informed by our alumni community who engaged and provided feedback to inform how we could create more meaningful moments. Our experiments were well worth it—from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, we have engaged 2,153 alumni, which is a tremendous achievement. With some refinement, we are poised to keep this momentum going.

I am pleased that with the Board’s support and the CAA team’s vision and expertise, we were able to launch our Caltech In… regional events, resulting in seven events around the United States. We also brought our Tables for Techers initiative to life, earning a Gold Winner in the Collegiate Advertising Awards, recognizing our staff’s marketing strategy and campaign. More than 600 alumni gathered together at Tables for Techers held around the world. The smiles, stories, and friendships brought by these new traditions (it’s tradition if we do it two years in a row!), demonstrate the impact that the CAA has on all of us. Marquee events such as Caltech In… regional gatherings, Tables for Techers, Alumni Weekend and Reunion, and Seminar Day, as well as those connective events of Senior Dinners (for our very soon-to-be alumni) to the Half Century Celebrations (for our alumni who graduated 50+ years ago), highlight the diversity of our alumni community and provide multiple touchpoints for engagement.

The Board has also sought to redefine when students begin their journey to become alumni, starting when students arrive on campus. Over the past year, we have developed relationships with our campus partners and allocated collaborative resources so that we can connect students with alumni as soon as they start at Caltech. This will allow alumni to volunteer as mentors and share the value of the Caltech network as students approach their next adventure post-Caltech. We will be launching some new programs in the upcoming year, so please stay tuned.

All of these programs and more were possible due to the amazing team of professionals we have in the CAA and the support by the Advancement and Alumni Relations team, who made things seamless over the past year while we held our search for the new CEO of the CAA. Finally, I am pleased that Mario Peraza, our new CEO at the CAA and AVP of Alumni Relations, will be our lead partner going forward to continue unlocking the value of what it means to be an alumnus/alumna of Caltech. As you may know, the CAA Board provides strategic direction and relies upon its collaborative relationship with Caltech and the CAA team to bring our events and platforms to life. I am excited for the CAA Board to continue the positive, forward-looking relationship in the years to come so that we can continue to enjoy our connections with each other and Caltech as we continue to grow individually and as a community, and share what it means to be a Techer.