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Andrew Cheng | Phoenix Staff

Khadijah White and David Wright speak with students about their experiences in the journalism field at the networking dinner.

BY HANNA KOZLOWSKA

In print | Published November 12, 2009 — Updated November 17, 2009 20:57

Upper Tarble was buzzing with conversations among alumni of all ages and students of all years on Saturday evening. The Alumni-Student Networking Dinner, an annual event hosted by Career Services, brought alums who graduated as recently as 2009 and as long ago as 1955 to campus to share their stories and advice with current students.

Thirteen different tables offered a variety of fields, ranging from healthcare to non-profit work, and a variety of experiences, as told by over 40 alumni, for students to learn about. The alumni who attended are all members of the Alumni Council, a group that helps with alumni-college and alumni-student relations.

The Networking Dinner, which started over 10 years ago, is not necessarily providing job or internship-seeking opportunities. “It is developing networking skills and obtaining information,” said Laura Sibson, the assistant director of alumni relations for Career Services.

“This year we focused on inviting local young alums because the students find valuable the recent experiences of young alums who are adjusting to life after Swarthmore,” Associate Director of Alumni Relations Astrid Devaney said.

Alumni who graduated decades apart and who are separated from current students by several generations had distinct and often conflicting perspectives to share.

At the journalism table, graduates discussed the future of the industry. David Wright ’69, a music journalist, talked about the ways in which the career path of a journalist has changed since he entered the field, with the possibility of “getting in the game without going through the corporate machine.”

Khadijah White ’05, with an entirely different background, including time as a producer for PBS, claimed that the future of journalism lies in an online-paying model through iTunes. Her comment elicited curiosity from the older generation of the alumni. “I’m a traditionalist. I like a print newspaper,” Wright said.

Both journalists agreed that it was impossible to predict what the media industry will look like when the first-years graduate. “You guys are a whole new generation,” White said, even though she graduated only four years ago.

Students at the journalism table also learned some tricks of the trade. “The first rule of journalism: if there’s free food, grab it,” said Michael S. Fields ’69, the news director for a radio station.

The dinner was also helpful to students who were unsure about their future. “I don’t know what I want to do. But this was a great opportunity just to get to hear about Swat grads’ careers,” Camille Robertson ’13 said. She sat at the non-profit table.

Robertson found that while younger alums gave advice on how to start out and get involved in their area of interest, the more experienced alums would talk about their own career paths and achievements.

“I found the information that the older alums provided to be very interesting and potentially inspiring to other students, but that offered by younger alumns to be more immediately applicable,” Robertson said.

The alumni talked about the different ways the Swarthmore network helped them after graduation. When physician Roger Shott ’60 was applying to medical school, there was an 80 percent chance that a Swarthmore graduate would be in the top 20 percent of his or her class at medical school. The secretary at University of Virgina looked at his recommendation letter and told him in a Southern drawl, “Those are the most impressive statistics we have ever seen.”

“I got hired for my TV job by an alum,” White said. “I also got tickets to a DNC [Democratic National Committee] function in Denver last year thanks to one.”

The alums are eager to help.

“The least I can do is come here, talk to students, say something that can jump-start them. … I encourage people to think of clichés, such as this one: ‘Life is a journey,’” White said. “You don’t have to have your life mapped out. Things get sorted out after Swat.”

The dinner was popular among students, and Sibson said that this year it was bigger than usual, with approximatley 100 students at the dinner. The most crowded areas included the healthcare, consulting and public policy tables.

Students find the conversations helpful and interesting. 

“You can see that [the alumni] are not just here for the food,” said John McMinn ’13, a pre-med student who sat at the healthcare table.   

The conversations weren’t limited to career experiences.

“I’ve been married to the same woman for 47 years. I met her here. They don’t call it a Quaker matchbox for nothing,” Shott said.

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