A Circle of Influence

When it works optimally, the UW’s relationship to its students isn’t as simple as a single stop — an educational boost to launch them into careers. Rather, it’s a cycle: Students graduate and become alumni, who stay involved to take advantage of UW expertise and to support its development, because they know they’ll probably become parents whose children graduate as more alumni. WAA’s role is to keep that cycle rolling.

That’s why WAA is putting a renewed emphasis on students and young alumni. The best way to keep graduates interested years after they’ve left campus is to get them involved before they leave. Just ask Jessica Bloodgood ’02.

Jessica has pretty much always been supported by a circle of Badger connections. Her father, John Bloodgood, is a 1985 graduate. On campus, she joined the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board and the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, leading to new UW friendships. But when she graduated, she left campus far behind, heading off to Japan to teach English.

However, thanks to wisconsincircle, WAA’s latest benefit aimed at young alumni, Jessica is still tied in to the UW community. An online networking tool, wisconsincircle enables alumni to post all sorts of information, from social updates to resumes, and to communicate with friends, friends-of-friends, and friends-of-friends-of-friends through message board postings, pictures and e-mails. While in Tokyo, Jessica used wisconsincircle to keep track of her various circles of Badger pals.

Though open to all alumni, the program offers a strong comfort zone for the online generation. “I feel very disconnected,” Jessica says, “despite e-mails and phone calls, and this was a great way to get in contact with people.”

To find out more about wisconsincircle, check it out or find out about all of WAA’s student and young alumni efforts.