Future Alumni Ambassadors provide students with networking opportunity
E-board members of the Future Alumni Ambassadors promote the registered student organization at Involvement Central Expo.
A student today, but a CMU Chippewa forever.
The Future Alumni Ambassadors is a business professional registered student organization with about 10 general members.
Formerly known as the Future Alumni Association, the ambassadors changed their name to clarify that this is a free club for all Central Michigan University students to join.
Essentially, members are “alumni in training” who are developing professional skills such as networking and leadership.
Rochester senior Caitlyn Uebbing has been a member since her sophomore year. She is the President of FAA and currently works part-time with the Alumni Association.
“FAA takes students who are not yet alumni and bridges the gap between becoming an alum,” Uebbing said. “We are really big in helping students get connections to alumni and we want to help the alumni house and association as much as we can.”
The Alumni Association members are alumni of Central Michigan and FAA members are current students looking to engage with alumni. The Alumni Association and FAA work together for events that surround traditions at CMU like Homecoming activities.
“With any alumni events, FAA is their first hand in helping,” Uebbing said. “We get our members to volunteer and we have the opportunities to talk to alum and donors. We see that side of being alumni as a student and seeing what that side of Central is about.”
FAA takes ‘discover trips’ to an alumnus' place of work to experience where alumni's degrees took them in a career field.
“Members of FAA have been able to get job interviews and internships through our discover trips,” Uebbing said. “Just based on them being prepared with a resume ready.”
Midland senior Andrew King said that he became an ambassador his final fall semester despite contrary belief that it is late in his undergraduate years to join a new RSO.
“(Joining FAA) really helped me to put in perspective, that when I am going to graduate, I still want to be connected to the university as alumni," King said. "Just having the opportunity to collaborate with the future undergraduates, I would still love to reconnect and see how we can help each other out.”
After graduation, the Alumni Association reaches out to graduates to provide information about being a member of the association. Information includes details about the types of membership opportunities within the Alumni Association.
“When you graduate from CMU, you will automatically become a member of the Alumni Association,” Marcie Otteman, executive director of the Alumni Association said. “We don’t require anyone to pay to become a member.”
FAA meets every other Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Anspach Hall, room 167. For more information about the spring meeting schedule, email alumni@cmich.edu.
