Title :
Increasing alumni engagement through the capstone experience
Author :
Gannod, Gerald C. ; Bachman, Kristen M. ; Troy, Douglas A. ; Brockman, Steve D.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Software Eng., Miami Univ., Miami, OH, USA
Abstract :
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.
Keywords :
continuing professional development; socio-economic effects; alumni engagement; alumni social responsibility; capstone experience; engineering; fund raising; graduating seniors; leaders-in-transition partnership; marketing; service learning projects; Communities; Conferences; Educational institutions; Lead; Prototypes; Software; Training; alumni engagement; capstone; senior design;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2010 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-6261-2
Electronic_ISBN :
0190-5848
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.2010.5673627