Increasing alumni engagement through the capstone experience

The capstone is meant to provide graduating seniors with a culminating experience that ties together the knowledge and skills that have been attained over the duration of a four-year curriculum. While there are many different styles of capstone projects, there is a recent trend towards offering service learning projects that allow students to apply their skills in a context that is a benefit to the community. In many instances, students are responsible for a wide variety of activities including fund raising, engineering, and marketing. At Miami University in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, we have begun a new initiative called the "Leaders in Transition Partnership" which is meant to 1) give students, faculty and external advisors the opportunity to work as a team to design, develop and deliver a product or system that will help the community and society as a whole, 2) promote and develop leadership across all stakeholders of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and 3) Re-engage alumni and other external advisors with the SEAS students and faculty in an innovative and socially responsible way. This paper describes how the partnership is developed, operated, and maintained.