How Teach For America's Career Center Supports Alumni (feat. Monica Clem)

Career Everywhere

Monica Clem, Vice President of the National Career Center for Teach For America, talks about how the Teach For America (TFA) career center supports its 60,000+ alumni in their careers after the two-year teaching program.

Monica shares how her team uses technology (like uConnect’s virtual career center) to engage alumni, how the national and regional TFA teams work together to support alumni all over the country, and what career resources TFA offers to alumni.

As a former higher education career services leader, Monica also digs into the differences and similarities between higher ed career services and career services within companies or nonprofit organizations like TFA. She also discusses why supporting alumni is so critical, for higher ed and the corporate world.

“College has become very challenging in terms of being affordable for a lot of people. And that has led to questions about the value of a college degree. And yet, those of us who work in this field know how valuable a college degree continues to be,” Monica says.

“So I think one way to really address some of those concerns is to tap into your alumni network. Not just for the purpose of mentoring or connectivity between students and alums, which of course is very important, but also for the purpose of engaging alumni with the resources the institution can provide to advance them in their careers.”

Monica also notes that organizations outside of higher ed face similar challenges with a tightening labor force and looming mass retirements of some of the largest generations of working-age people.

“I think a lot of organizations, when they think about long-term talent needs, are really tapping into some of their former employees. We call them boomerang employees,” Monica says.

“It’s about being intentional when employees leave your organization, thinking about if they’re leaving on a somewhat good note, like is this someone that could be interested in coming back to us in the future? And then continuing to keep them engaged. And again, adding value by treating them as alumni is critically important for organizations that have a long view of building a talent pipeline.”

Resources from the episode:

• Monica’s LinkedIn profile
• Teach For America Alumni Hub (powered by uConnect)

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