For this edition of Almabase Spotlights featuring Public Universities, we shine the light on California State University, Chico, and their award-winning Wildcat Connect Webinar Series. The series features educational webinars on different topics, which serves as a great way to help keep their 160,000-strong alumni community engaged.

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💡 An Award-winning Idea to Engage Alumni Through a Webinar Series

The Wildcat Connect Webinar Series is a simple idea — a collection of informative webinars that would benefit the University’s alumni, wherever they are in the world. However, the execution of this idea has been a tremendous success for the Advancement team, as over 1,200 alumni have shown their appreciation for the 10 webinars hosted in 2021. In fact, the idea and its implementation was so successful that it bagged the coveted CASE Platinum Award in 2021, in the Best Practices in Alumni Relations category. The University plans to keep the pipeline rich, with more amazing content planned for their alumni down the road.

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The topics of each of the webinars have been extremely relevant for their alumni community, which is a key factor in the campaign’s success. From entrepreneurship and startups, to career advice, to tips on financial planning - each of the webinars provide a ton of value to alumni who attend. Typically, a webinar features a dean as a host, an expert faculty member as a moderator, and 2-3 alumni as panelists. The series is a great avenue to showcase the exceptional faculty members and distinguished alumni. We love how this alumni-centric idea of creating webinars by the alumni, and for the alumni, is keeping thousands of the University’s constituents engaged. ♥

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🌟 Our Source of Inspiration

Tania Miranda Rueda currently serves as the Alumni Engagement Coordinator at California State University, Chico. She is a program management professional with over 10 years of experience in international education, telecommunications, and international start-ups. Her responsibilities at the University include implementing and overseeing an effective alumni relations strategy that engages the University’s 160,000-strong alumni community.

Tania was awarded a Bronze Recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for her contributions to the Wildcat Connect Webinar Series.

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