New alumni website launches this week

Buffalo State's Alumni Affairs Office will be launching a new website on Wednesday, which will include social-networking elements and a database for students to find alumni mentors.

The site includes an all-new look, along with plenty of new features. One of the most notable is an improved alumni database, which can be accessed by both students and alumni.

This is the first time that the college will allow students to join the database, said Kelly Mazella, online community manager at the Alumni Affairs Office.

Those who sign up will be given a profile that they can customize with photos, blog entries and personal information, along with links to their accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking sites.

 "It's much more interactive than our previous site, and it's going to create the online network we've been trying to accomplish," Mazella said.

Students looking for career advice will be able to take advantage of the new mentoring system. Alumni will have the option of signing up as mentors on the new site. Students can search the database by profession or company, and contact an alumnus for advice, career tips or networking opportunities.

This new initiative is the result of a partnership between the college's Career Development Center and the Alumni Affairs Office.

"We really sat down with Alumni Affairs and lobbied for students to have access," said Jessie Lombardo, a senior career counselor at the Career Development Center.

Previously, partnering students with an appropriate alumni mentor could be cumbersome, Lombardo said. The new system allows for more independence. Now, if a student needs some quick advice from an experienced professional the information will be easily accessible.

"It doesn't have to be this intensive, time-consuming engagement," Lombardo said.

Recent graduates say they know the importance of networking with alumni.

Charles Bagley, 28, graduated from Buffalo State with a degree in business management in 2005. The Niagara Falls resident is now the branch manager at three Enterprise Rent-a-Car locations, and has returned to campus several times to speak to students and recruit at career fairs.

He said he knows the importance of networking from his own time at school.

"When I was in that same situation, I reached out to alumni to give me feedback about how I was going in a certain career," he said.

Bagley said he did not know about the new database, but said he would definitely be interested in being a mentor.

"That's really neat, I like that," he said.

Samantha Prior, a 2010 graduate, worked in the Career Development Center during her four years on campus, and often used the resources there to seek out mentoring from alumni. She said she would recommend other students do the same.

"That's probably one of the only ways they will get real first-hand knowledge of what things are going to be like and what they can expect," she said.

Prior, 23, said she knows about the new website and already plans to sign on as a mentor.

Prior lives in Buffalo and works as an event planner for Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing Inc.

 The new alumni website will also include job-search tips, including interview etiquette, to better prepare students for life after college, Mazella said.

"It's also going to help them develop professionally," she said.

The site will be used as part of the Alumni Affairs Office's new Partnering Alumni With Students initiative, an effort to increase alumni participation on campus.

"We want to be seen as a viable resource for alumni, and we felt a new website would help us accomplish that," Mazella said.

Web-development company iModules was hired to create the new site after college officials decided the current system no longer met their needs, Mazella said. Development on the new site started in June.

Alumni like Bagley are already prepared to dedicate their time to aid new students.

"It's my job for me to help others, because help was given to me," Bagley said.

The site is located at www.alumni.buffalostate.edu.

Jacob Tierney can be reached by email at tierney.record@live.com.