Making the Most of the HAA Programs, Staff and Resources

 

 

 

 

 

Early College Awareness Programs

These are phenomenal programs that inspire students to consider a path towards higher education and serve the community by encouraging young people to continue their education and fulfill their potential.

  • Programs take a variety of forms, including building mentoring relationships between alumni and students at a particular school, raising awareness about requirements for going to college outside your home country, providing college essay writing workshops, and the HAA’s Early College Awareness (ECA) program, through which Harvard alumni facilitate sessions in local middle schools to encourage students and their parents/guardians to consider and plan for a college education.  Learn more here.

  • A detailed slideshow with additional information and sources can be found here. A recording of our recent webinar can be found here.

Why participate? Impact your community; raise the visibility of Harvard; form ties with future generations; engage recent grads in giving back

Resources: Please visit the Early College Awareness website located here.  

Speakers Bureau

This popular program allows you to create a program for your alumni with extraordinary Harvard faculty, and helps you reconnect your alumni with the classroom experience. 

  • created as a domestic program that gives Harvard Clubs and SIGs the opportunity to host distinguished members of the Harvard faculty and administration, with HAA paying travels costs, and the Club/SIG pickup up the cost of lodging.

  • international Harvard Clubs and SIGs, the HAA makes every effort to inform international Clubs and SIGs of any Harvard faculty members traveling to their area. We now pay for in-region flights, so if a faculty member is going to Milan, we’ll see if she will travel to another part of Europe as well.

  • trying to think creatively about how we can leverage existing technology, such as Fuze, Google hangouts and Skype to make videoconferencing with a faculty member in Cambridge more scaleable and a lighter lift for volunteers.

Why participate? In a recent survey of all alumni, the number one thing alumni wanted from Harvard was to connect with intellectual content.  Speakers Bureau provides local alumni with lifelong learning opportunities, and creates connections to the intellectual riches of Harvard.  Also a great opportunity for Club/SIG collaboration

Examples discussed: The Harvard Club of Kansas City; Harvardwood SIG; Global Women’s Empowerment SIG

 ALC and Regional Conferences

Alumni Leadership Conference and our regional conferences in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East in Africa connect Club and SIG leaders from around the world to share best practices, discuss strategies for overcoming challenges, and learn leadership lessons from Harvard faculty.

Why participate? Interact with Club and SIG leaders from around the world, reconnect to the classroom experience with Harvard faculty, and most importantly, learn great ideas that you can bring into your Club or SIG

Examples discussed: The Harvard Club of Poland, Harvard Club of Long Island, First Generation SIG

 Prize Book Program

This program intriduces talented young people to the opportunities available at Harvard, recognizes their scholastic and personal achievements, and raises the visibility of Harvard in your local community through the Harvard Prize Book program.

  • Through our Clubs and Sigs nearly 2200 Prize Books are awarded worldwide

Why participate:  Clubs and SIGs participate in this program to engage alumni who want to give back; raise awareness of Harvard as a possibility for talented young people; and to have an impact in their communities.

Examples discussed: Harvard Club of Hong Kong, Harvard Club of Seattle

Global Networking Night

Explore and expand your Harvard network and connect to alumni for professional and personal networking in a relaxed environment through Global Networking Night.

- a great forum for meeting and getting to know alumni, informing them about your organization and to inviting them to become members

- these programs typically draw a large group of non-member alumni, so they present great opportunities for raising the visibility of your organization

-  HAA handles the marketing and registration for GNN

 

Why participate? Membership recruitment opportunity; intergenerational program that attracts young alumni; great opportunity for Club/SIG collaboration; easy list for volunteers.

Examples discussed: The Asian America Alumni Alliance, the Harvard Real Estate Alumni Organization, Harvard Architecture and Urban Society Alumni SIG, the Harvard Club of New York City, the Harvard Club of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia

Harvard Serves

Make a difference in your community and celebrate the spirit of giving back through Harvard Serves, which offers diverse volunteer opportunities to alumni around the world that have an impact in their local area.

  • past projects have included literacy programs, environmental clean up, teen empowerment, pro bono legal aid, soup kitchens, and much more.

Why participate? Community impact; engage new members; connect around topics of interest to your community

Example discussed: Harvard Club of San Diego

Summer Community Service Fellowship Program

Help a student work in the public interest and have an impact in your local community by providing a grant to a Harvard undergraduate working with a nonprofit host organization in their local community or area.

Reason to participate: Support students interested in public service; impact an organization in your community; build awareness about your Club/SIG

Examples discussed: Harvard Club of Phoenix, Harvard Club of UK, Harvard Black Alumni Society SIG

Regarding HAA services:

Use eVENTS

Take advantage of HAA eVENTS to advertise your organization’s events.

  • a monthly broadcast email that goes to all Harvard alumni for whom the HAA has email addresses – about 250,000

  • Clubs and SIGs have used this to promote signature events or events with Harvard faculty, and doing so has the added bonus of raising the visibility of your organization to alumni worldwide

  • especially useful for SIGs wishing to raise awareness of both the existence of your group and the types of programming your SIG offers

Examples discussed: Harvardwood, Harvard Veterans, and Global Women’s Empowerment SIGs

Broadcast email

Leverage technology to communicate with alumni, advertise an event or to solicit membership through the HAA’s broadcast email program, through which the HAA will send an email (twice yearly) to all alumni in your area or in your SIG.

Harvard Magazine

Take advantage of a discounted subscription rate for Harvard Magazine and offer your international Club/SIG members an additional benefit of membership

Examples: Harvard Club of UK, Harvard Club of Australia

Please don’t hesitate to contact the Clubs and Shared Interest Groups team at (617) 495-3070, toll free in the U.S. and Canada at (800) 654-6494, and by email at clubs@harvard.edu.