Master's in Education PolicyAlumni Advisory Board

Annual Report2015 - 2016

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington

The Master's in Education Policy (MEP) program

Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) will support the

growth and development of the MEP program as a

world-class incubator for the professional talent

needed to transform education by implementing a

mentor program, a network platform, and expanded

community partnerships.

ADVISORY ALUMNI BOARD 2015-2016

LEADERSHIP

MEMBERS

MEP STAFF

STUDENT

REPRESENTATIVE M in Hwangbo, MEP 5

Jillian Kilby, Co- chair, MEP 3 Sarah Margeson, Co- chair, MEP 1 Maia Kaz, Vice- chair, MEP 3

Cinzia Let t ier i, Fiscal Of f icer, MEP 3 Roohi Sharma, Communicat ions Of f icer, MEP 4

Ann Rubie, MEP 1 Korr ie M iller, MEP 1 Mary Fert akis, MEP 2

Raka Bat t acharya, MEP 2 Allison Shields, MEP 2 Annabel Cholico, MEP 3

Corr in Sullivan, MEP 3 Ren Gooch, MEP 3 Cait lin O?Shea, MEP 3

Alessandra de Campos, MEP 4 Gray St er ling, MEP 4

Dr. Tom Halverson, Direct or

Alan Moore, Assist ant Direct or, MEP 3

When the AAB was founded in May 2015, it was spearheaded by the MEP administration and a diverse group of alumni who were brought together under the same mission--to work collaboratively to strategize ways of bolstering the MEP program, while also connecting to our talented alumni base. Under this shared commitment, it was a priority to build our mission, vision, and goals.

The AAB wasn?t created to idly sit on the sidelines by not tapping into the robust graduates from this program who are changing impacting education, research, and policy in dynamic ways across the state of Washington and nationally. This board was born out of the desire to build upon our graduate experience in the MEP program and the desire need to further improve the MEP program and its relation to alumni and the communities we serve. This was our challenge. How do we work together to form a shared mission that would drive our work in a short period of time?

Through collaboration and ongoing discussion, we outlined ways that we could engage with current students, alumni, and the community. A three tiered approach soon became apparent. As a board, we discovered we could set the foundation of our our base while facilitating opportunities for engagement for alumni and current students through networking, mentoring, and expanding community partnerships. This is where the heart of our work and efforts have been realized and proudly showcased in this report.

BUILD, CONNECT, & COLLABORATE

Through our mission, vision, and goals for AAB, leadership along with board members are dedicated to building upon this year's progress, by simultaneously improving the MEP experience for current students and utilizing alumni within the community. As a first year board, we have overcome numerous obstacles to produce incredible outcomes. Our inaugural annual report represents the hard work and commitment the board has to the Master's in Education Policy (MEP) program. We are thrilled to share this past year's accomplishments with alumni and the community, and look forward to the future.

Thanks for reading and Go Huskies!

Master's in Education Policy Alumni Advisory Board

Jillian Kilby, Co-chair, MEP 3

Sarah Margeson, Co-chair, MEP 1

Maia Kaz, Vice-chair, MEP 3

Cinzia Lettieri, Fiscal Officer, MEP 3

Roohi Sharma, Communications Officer, MEP 4

Building multifaceted connections among current students, alumni, and the community is the

foundation that has guided leadership on the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB).

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COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

SCAFFOLDING FOR STRONG PARTNERSHIPS

Our goal? To connect MEP alumni, the MEP program, and community

organizations in mutually beneficial relationships to benefit the P-20

education system at large, community organizations, and the MEP

program.

To help focus our work and connect it to our larger vision, we began by

creating a vision and goals statement and quickly identified a couple of

key priorities around which to focus our work:

- BUILD our program one relationship at a time, learning as we go

and focusing on quality rather than quantity;

- REACH OUT to a wide a variety of organizations, reflecting a

wide variety of policy positions; and

- ALLOW our relationships to grow and change fluidly, allowing for

a changing landscape.

To keep our work concrete and give it some definition, we also worked

on defining ?What?s in it?? for community partners and ?What?s in it??

for the MEP Alumni Advisory Board, and we created a ?one- page

leave-behind? document for potential partners.

In this excit ing inaugural year of the Master?s in Education Policy (MEP) Alumni Advisory Board (AAB),

the Community Partnerships subgroup has been reaching out to local education community groups,

building bridges one relationship at a t ime.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE NOT ?ONE-SIZE- FITS-ALL.?

The fruits of our efforts this year have enabled us to explore the

possibilities of partnership work with Seattle-based organizations such

as:

- League of Education Voters (LEV)

- North Shore Education Association (NSEA)

- Seattle Education Association (SEA)

- Seattle Tilth

- SOAR

- Stand for Children

- Upower

While our goals have been clear, our work this year has challenged us to

think beyond ?one-size- fits-all relationships.? Conversations with a wide

variety of education and youth organizations have revealed that there is

no template for what a community partner relationship looks like.

Factors such as each organization?s mission, size, staffing, funding, and

their work cycles all come into play, along with our Community

Partnerships subgroup?s ability to successfully identify and follow up

with potential partners. We also need to allow our relationship with

each organization to evolve naturally, allowing room for unexpected

opportunities.

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"There is no template for what a community partner relat ionship looks like. Factors such as

each organizat ion?s mission, size, staffing, funding, and their work cycles all come into play? "

LOOKING AHEAD

With this first year of relationship building underway, our plans for next

year include:

- Maintaining and deepening our partnerships with existing

community organizations, with a focus on maximizing

opportunities for collaboration on specific projects and

sustainability;

- Reaching out to more organizations?leveraging the extensive

network that exists within the MEP program and MEP Alumni

Advisory Board?to expand our partnership pool; and

- The possibility of hosting a roundtable event for community

partners, bringing together education advocates in a kind of

?education policy studio.?

The future of our community partnerships is bright, as we develop deeper

connections within our community and hone our vision for the many

possibilities of partnering with our local community.

In the meantime, many thanks and much appreciation go to the following

MEP alumni for their work on community partnerships this year:

Raka Bhattacharya, MEP 2

Maia Kaz, MEP 3

Alan Moore, MEP 3, Assistant Director, UW MEP Program

Ann Rubie, MEP 1

Roohi Sharma, MEP 4

Corrin Sullivan, MEP 3

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MEP 3 Members @ Seattle Education Access Fund-Raising Event

BRIDGING CONNECTIONS

To bolster MEP programming, the Mentorship Development Group (MDG) was formed to design and implement a quality mentorship program to connect alumni to current students for support. We know the research. Numerous publications indicate the positive impacts of mentoring programs in higher education. Outcomes show stronger networks, program satisfaction, strengthened supports and commitment, and successful degree completion (to name a few). As the MEP program continues to grow and evolve, a diverse pool of talented and efficacious alumni join the education and policy arena through organizations, government agencies, higher education institutions, or classrooms. This presents an opportunity to tap into the multifaceted backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives alumni can impart to empower future cohorts through mentorship.

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

As the Master?s in Education Policy (MEP) program continues to grow, programming continues to evolve. To help current

students navigate the changes, challenges, and expectations shaped by the program, it became evident that mentorship from alumni was needed to help guide students during their t ime in MEP, while subsequently developing and bridging

relationships between alumni and current students.

MISSION DRIVEN. GOAL ORIENTED.

Our mission is simple. By creating opportunities for alumni and current students to engage, our goal is to connect current students with alumni in an effort to enhance the MEP experience.

Our goal is to utilize quality and effective mentorship programming as a

tool to:

- BRIDGE the current MEP cohort and alumni network by fostering meaningful connections and relationships to strengthen the MEP community and enhance the MEP experience.

- PROVIDE meaningful SUPPORT and encouragement through engagement.

- RAISE attention to EQUITY and DIVERSITY through pairings and communication.

We believe that for this program to be effective we must create opportunities for current students to engage with select alumni (as mentors). This sets the foundation for students to identify who they would like to receive mentorship from, which encourages meaningful and organic matches.

Mentor Speed Networking Event

"My mentor has given me some wonderful advice on how to approach the internship and project t imeline creat ion. It has also been ext remely helpful in just

being a listening ear as I am processing my experience in the program."

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SETTING HIGH STANDARDS FOR PROMISING RELATIONSHIPSThe Mentorship Development Group (MDG) incorporated guidelines and standards to increase the likelihood of successful relationships. To participate as mentors in the program, alumni were required to undergo a training to learn their role and expectations as mentors in this program. The MDG felt that it was imperative that mentors leave the training understanding the purpose, goals, and guidelines of the program to increase its quality and effectiveness. Additionally, the MDG recognized that current students should have the chance to opt-in or out of the program. The opt-out clause was implemented to reinforce the power of choice and personal decision making according to the diverse needs of the current cohort.

MEASUREMENT FOR SUCCESSIt is the vision of the MDG to design and implement a program that effectively navigates and supports current students through their MEP experience. The relationship between the mentor and mentee are two-fold: we want alumni to feel that they are successfully supporting the student, and vice versa; we want the student to feel that he or she is receiving the encouragement needed during the program. During the midpoint and end of the MEP program the MDG will evaluate the effectiveness of the mentorship program through surveys and facilitation of in-person discussions. Responses will be collected and tracked to evaluate each mentor/mentee pairing. Based on feedback provided from both alumni and students, revisions to strengthen the mentorship program will be made.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURETo continue the success of the mentorship program, the MDG plans to work on incorporating more recruitment, training, and events for mentors and mentees to engage.

Coalescing recruitment efforts will build capacity among alumni participants. The MDG strives to have a strong and diverse pool of prospective mentors for current students to meet and select. Summer 2016 will allot the opportunity to create a strategic plan to foster more participation among mentors. Our goal: increase alumni participation by 20 percent.

While training for alumni who participated as mentors was successful, we want to provide a training for current students so that they can be better equipped to understand program expectations and how to foster relationships with alumni. Additionally, we want to strengthen alumni training by providing further supports to help current students by incorporating additional materials to provide to students who need to access career or academic related resources.Last, we want to create more opportunities for alumni and current students to get to know each other and build authentic relationships. The MDG will plan more events for interaction and to bridge communication gaps and give current students more options to select a mentor of good fit.

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

68%

19 participants (9 Mentors & 10 Mentees) responded to our survey.

of the participants responded they had: 1) "Extremely Well-Matched" mentor-mentee fit; and2) "Completely-Satisfied" with the frequency and style of communication.

MEP 5 Cohort picked

"NETWORKING" and "CONNECTING" as the primary reasons to be involved in the mentorship program.

"I wanted to Connect with other alumni but

also to get advise and feedback from someone who has been in my shoes."

"I wanted professional and

Local Networking Support from my mentor."

"I thought it would be valuable to make

a Connection with an MEP

alumni, as well as someone situated in the local education policy arena."

"I hoped to gain Closer Connections with MEP alumni in order to have an addit ional person (or group of people) with whom to network and ask questions surrounding MEP and the education field in Seattle/WA."

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NETWORK DEVELOPMENT

With the fifth cohort of the MEP program nearing graduation, our vision is to connect our expanding

alumni base to foster professional collaboration both at an individual and organizational level.

BUILDING PATHWAYS OF SUCCESS

To build the relationships necessary for collaboration, we have been utilizing a range of web-based platforms to facilitate alumni identification and communication. We also sought to coordinate and plan a series of in person engagement events.

To foster alumni communication and connection, we met with a similar graduate program to inform our planning on designing an intranet site that would enable alumni to search and reach out to one another easily along shared interests within education policy.

We have met with a designer and have a blue print of an online

platform that would facilitate network development through online

search of alumni, conversation boards, and events calendar.

We also streamlined divergent groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn

to consolidate groups creating one MEP alumni group on each social

media platform as well as creating a Twitter account and handle.We

also streamlined divergent groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn to

consolidate groups creating one MEP alumni group on each social

media platform as well as creating a Twitter account and handle.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

After first updating contact and position information for our alumni

base spanning across the globe, we planned and hosted our first all

cohort alumni social to provide a space to build relationships across

cohorts.

Our first event garnered an attendance rate of 40% and a net promoter

score of 70% with 72% of attendees noting they met new alumni.

During our review of feedback, we learned we would structure the

events to provide time for group introductions and that the desired

frequency is quarterly. We also realized the need to use multiple

channels to reach alumni as well update contact information.

"MEP alumni are leading the change in government agencies,

non-profit organizat ions, the private sector, and academia."

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A LOOK AHEADAs we continue the momentum next year to fostering engagement across cohorts and build a strong alumni network to leverage strengths within our program, we plan to implement the intranet site as well as host/hold regular social events on a quarterly basis.

We also plan to utilize a range of tactics to drive engagement on the various social media platforms to facilitate engagement.

To inform our engagement strategies we plan to conduct surveys and focus groups to gather data regarding social media platform engagement in terms of frequency, content, and modality. We hope this will elicit patterns to inform our engagement strategy especially if we want to target content based on platform. This will enable us to meet needs of alumni more effectively as well as utilize board members most efficiently to drive engagement.

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INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE

As a new board, we wanted to focus our spending on taking the steps to

introduce and re-acquaint MEP alumni with each other and provide

current MEP?s with a new type of support from past MEP participants.

 With this objective in mind, the board was able to fund the very first all

cohort alumni Network Social at Scarborough Winery in SODO.  We felt

that it was crucial to allocate funding to continually build relations across

all cohorts. Our ability to fund all-cohort networking events, will allow

alumni to stay connected and  continue to be a support system for each

other in and outside the College of Education.  The board also passed

funding to spearhead the Mentor Development Group?s mentor-mentee

trainings and activities. This funding allowed the Advisory Board the

ability to provide mentors to current MEP students with MEP Alumni. As

a new board we were excited to bring funding to this aspect of the board,

as we continue to enroll and graduate new cohorts. Support for this

program had an overall positive impact and the board looks forward to

re-investing in the mentor-mentee program next year.

As the Alumni Advisory Board looks toward the future, we would like to

continue to expand previously funded events and work toward

expanding and investing money into growing areas that are showing a

high impact and positive reaction among alumni.

We invested our t ime toward being fiscally solvent and utilizing the Board?s finances toward building, connecting, and bridging current MEP students and past alumni.

Operating Expenses(Disbursements)

Program Expenses

- Room rentals for board meetings

- Board member parking reimbursements

- Mentor Speed Dating Event- All Alumni Network Social- Mentor development training

As the board develops, we will seek out opportunities to use our

resources to fundraise for projects and programs. Future projects and

programs that we hope to sponsor include panels on topical issues

within education, MEP branded materials and mementos, opportunities

that highlight MEP students and graduates within the community, and

projects that strive to keep alumni connected via social media,

gatherings, and community presence. 

2015-16 BUDGET SUMMARY

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University of Washington

Seattle, Washington

The Master's in Education Policy Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) would like to dedicate our first annual report in loving memory of Allison Bass (MEP 2) and Mafalda Melo (MEP 3). Special thanks to Min Hwangbo (MEP 5) for his creativity and assistance in developing our very first annual report. Without his collaborative abilit ies and contributions, this report would not have been possible. Last, but certainly not least, the AAB would like to acknowledge our phenomenal alumni, current students, and staff from the MEP program. You have and

will always continue to be a constant source of inspiration to continue to elevate the MEP program.

Acknowledgements