Last year, as part of the annual Dinners for 12 Strangers program, Stephanie Ching attended a dinner hosted by a UCLA alumnus who was a lawyer.
Ching, a fourth-year communication studies student and executive director of Dinners for 12 Strangers, said she was interested in attending law school, and though she had talked with current law students before, she said she gained new perspective by talking with someone who had graduated and used his degree.
UCLA student groups provide many tools and programs for current UCLA students to network with alumni, such as Interview with a Bruin, Dinners for 12 Strangers and Feud game shows, which provide pre-professional advice.
Dinners for 12 Strangers, which are hosted every March by the Student Alumni Association, allow alumni and faculty to meet with current UCLA students over dinner to discuss career development and swap stories about UCLA.
“Each experience is completely unique … and at the dinners everyone is open to meeting new people,” Ching said, who has been to many dinners.
The alumni who volunteer to host dinners often come back year after year to help out, said Ananth Varma, a fourth-year applied mathematics student and the 2005-2006 executive director for Dinners for 12 Strangers.
“Hosts love this program … and are really excited to get back to their alma mater and see the changes at UCLA,” Varma said.
This month, SAA also plans to host Interview with a Bruin, where alumni professionals conduct mock interviews with students to help them brush up on their interviewing skills, according to the SAA Web site.
Through the SAA Web site, students can also use the UCLA Career Network to search for UCLA alumni who are employed in areas that interest them.
Students can search through thousands of alumni based on profession, company name, major or region.
The search results provide the name, position, e-mail address, phone number and address of alumni, allowing students to contact them with questions about their job.
The Academic Affairs Commission, an office within the Undergraduate Students Association Council, also hosts events that connect current students with alumni.
Once a quarter, the commission hosts a Feud game show where alumni speak as panelists about a specific career path, said Academic Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster.
In January, the commission hosted “UCLA Feud: Why Law?” and in April, it will host “UCLA Feud: Why teaching?” Schuster said.
“What’s unique about this program … is that most programming tells students how to become one profession or another, … but the question students don’t ask themselves is why to pursue a certain field,” Schuster said.
The Academic Affairs Commission surveys professionals about their careers and discusses the positive and negative aspects mentioned in the surveys during the game show.
“I have heard students say, … “˜I definitely don’t want to do this; this program scared me away from this (profession),'” Schuster said. “And others have walked away saying, “˜I am sure about this career choice now.'”