Hey, Young Alumni—Don’t Stay on the Sidelines!

By Jinyoung Park ’11

It’s great to stay in touch with your fellow Reedies even after leaving our beloved alma mater. Resources such as IRIS and Switchboard make it super easy, not to mention LinkedIn and Facebook, where you’ll find affinity groups such as Reed Journo, International Reed Alumni, and of course the infamous Reed (unofficial).

Maintaining Reed relationships has not only allowed me to have minireunions and thoughtful discussions (sometimes even on Facebook!), but it has also helped in my career. In fact, a Reed contact was instrumental in my landing my second job. When I first arrived in New Orleans, pretty much straight out of Reed, I used IRIS to reach out to Reedies in town. It just so happened that one of those alumni was a faculty member whom I would be working with if I got the job, and he also knew the hiring manager. Now, I’m not sure if he directly advocated for me, but he did invite me to a party—which the hiring manager also attended.

I also highly recommend attending your five-year reunion. It’s fascinating to see the faces that you went to Reed with, but with way less stress and a lot more smiles.

Track down your local alumni chapter. Check out the events. For me, it’s been a pleasure to meet Reedies whom I did not overlap with, and to grow my community.