1. Development: Leadership Volunteerism Management
How to efficiently pair a volunteer with their mentor or subject

2. Examples of Leadership Volunteerism
Prospective Student Interviews
Students applying to FIT are offered the chance to meet with an alum for a one-hour interview.
Purpose: so the student can learn more about what to expect from FIT, and admissions can add more information on their application.
Outcomes: Value added for admissions, recruiting talented students, a positive, engaging, experience for the alum.
Scope: 1000 alumni, 3000 interviews.

3. Examples of Leadership Volunteerism
Discovery Visits and Mock Interview
1st and 2nd year students are paired with a successful alum to talk about their field in-person or over skype. 4th year students paired to practice interviewing.
Purpose: Help students explore career options.
Outcomes: Students receive advice and a possible future mentor, strongest possible job search outcomes, and a positive, engaging, experience for the alum.
Scope: 1000 alumni, 3000 conversations.

4. The Challenge The hard part is bringing the two together.
The easy part is the collection of the data
An excel spreadsheet with all of the prospective students, including names, where they live, and other relevant information needed for pairing.
An excel spreadsheet with all the volunteers.
The hard part is bringing the two together.

5. The Challenge (cont…)
What we need is a program that would take the data from the two and pair volunteer and subject.
In the case of prospective interviews—by location, ideally matching by distances (e.g. within 50 miles apart), but at least minimally by city and state.
In the case of mock interviews we need two matching models:
By distance, city/state as above AND
By field or degree area

6. The Challenge (cont…)
Once paired, the volunteer coordinator will need to track the activities to completion.
First they will need to confirm the match makes sense.
Then they will need to communicate with the volunteers to confirm their acceptance of the match and give them the students’ contact information (we need the volunteer to take it from there in most cases)
After volunteers complete their activity, they need to report back (by a web form and perhaps this reporting tool can be developed in the scope of this project.

7. The Challenge (cont…)
The coordinator will track completion and send reminders to those who have not submitted their forms.
Each program will have an end date when it closes.
Information will need to be kept to evaluate the volunteers and whether any need to be flagged for non- responsiveness so that the program can be rolled into the next year.

8. Evaluation
There may be up to ten different volunteer programs, relating generally to FIT’s Admissions, Academic, Career Services and Development objectives
Development goals
The number of “unit hours” the volunteers put in.
Did the volunteer greatly enjoy the experience?
Academic
Did the experience enhance student learning?
Did the faculty find the input helpful to them?

9. Evaluation Career Services Goals Admissions
Did the experience with an alum help build the students’ network?
Did the activity improve the chances of finding a job within six months of graduating?
Admissions
Did the interviews provide useful information to the admissions staff for decisions?
Did the yield rate increase for the strongest students?

10. Thank you!
If successfully, this project could help FIT develop one of the most innovative leadership volunteer programs in the nation and bring our students together with a powerful alumni network in specific and measurably impactful ways.