Alumni provide a valuable resource for schools
Ranny Shibley’s relationship with his high school didn’t end when he graduated Grade 12 in 2001. Now a successful venture capitalist and the president and chief executive officer of his own company, Shibley is deeply involved with his alma mater, West Island College (WIC). Now a regular volunteer at the school, a member of its board of directors and a founding member of its alumni committee, Shibley sees himself as a lifetime member of the WIC community. “WIC prides itself on focusing on community and that community extends well beyond the students who are at the school today,” Shibley says. “Our community involves students, staff, faculty, alumni and parents. We try to create a culture where everyone is involved and everyone matters. The school does a very good job of keeping people engaged and informed.” The tradition of alumni continuing to have a relationship with their former schools is not unusual with private school grads. Several of Calgary’s private schools go the extra mile to honour and include their alumni, which has tangible benefits for current students as well as the alumni themselves. Webber Academy, for example, holds a career and university symposium every year, inviting alumni to return to the school to give advice to students, focusing on both post-secondary and long-term career plans. Since Webber Academy is a relatively young school — the first Grade 12 class graduated in 2005 — even the eldest of the alumni are only a decade or so older than current students. This gives students an opportunity to receive mentorship from younger adults who may have a different perspective than their teachers or parents. In addition to the symposium, Webber alumni also regularly volunteer in the school as coaches or to participate in debate camps and other activities. It’s not uncommon for alumni to pop in to say hello to former teachers, meaning current students are used to seeing them
in the building and embracing them as part of the larger school community. “Who would be more credible to give advice to our current high school students on their career and university plans than our alumni who have been through the exact same experience that they’re going through?” asks Jay Niven, one of Webber’s senior high school teachers who helps organize the symposium. “We find that our current students give instant credibility to the alumni and recognize that they’re just at different points on the same path.” Thirty-six years into its operations, West Island College has an even larger pool of alumni to draw from. Its alumni regularly mentor and network with current students and volunteer at various school events, but the school also makes an effort to help the alumni themselves with their professional and social networking. It holds regular alumni-to-alumni mentoring sessions where more mature alumni will meet with recent grads, as well as young alumni
pub nights and other gettogethers. West Island College also publishes an alumni magazine and hosts an annual Alumni Achievement Awards where alumni are recognized for their achievements in the arts, personal achievement, business and philanthropy. Former students are also invited to participate in annual events like a golf tournament, a Legacy Gala and a Homecoming event, both to socialize and strengthen professional relationships. “We’re engaging our alumni in very meaningful ways and they’re really wanting to return to the school,” says Rolly Chalifoux, West Island College’s administrator of alumni relations development. “I work with the Grade 12s and let them know throughout the year what we’re doing with alumni so once they leave the school they know that they can continue to be involved.” With smaller, more intimate classrooms and programs that often stretch all the way from kindergarten to
Grade 12, these private schools are able to develop personal bonds with students that linger into adulthood. Even though Shibley has now been an alumnus longer than he was an actual student at West Island College, he knows that that school experience will remain important for the rest of his life. “Most of my best friends are people I went to West
Island College with,” Shibley says. “We were in each other’s wedding parties, we hang out on a weekly basis. Even though we’re in different industries and might even be in different cities, the small classroom size and the sense of pride of being in a different type of school really brings you together. The relationships that are forged are lifetime relationships.”