That’s the No. 1 question I’ve heard from our alumni during my first four months as director of Mendoza Alumni Relations. Coincidentally, it has also been the No. 1 question I’ve heard from my gracious colleagues here at Mendoza. This speaks to the strong mission alignment that the entire Notre Dame community shares, and it’s this culture of service that I’m making the cornerstone of alumni relations at Mendoza.

While a strong alumni network is a feature of every top university, what separates the truly elite schools are alumni who are inspired to give of their time, experience and connections to current students and faculty. Mendoza itself has a long history of strong alumni relations, with many of our departments, institutes and clubs enjoying decades of alumni participation. But Mendoza is growing and changing. If we’re to truly elevate, cooperate and integrate within Mendoza, all of our departments, programs and functional groups deserve and require the same robust alumni participation and support.

How do we inspire our alumni to service? A friend and mentor of mine at Notre Dame, the great Peter Holland, often told me that the easiest way to any alumnus’ heart was through the students. Nothing captures their attention more than the opportunity to affect the life of a current student, which is why increasing alumni involvement in the student journey is my top priority.

We need to constantly create, evaluate and improve upon meaningful opportunities for our alumni to have an impact on our students beginning with the recruitment pipeline, through the admissions process, during their time as students and after they graduate. We already have many alumni involved, but our needs are growing and diversifying. This year, you’ll see a huge emphasis on volunteer recruitment for student engagement.

Another way to inspire our alumni to service is by bringing more of Notre Dame to them, and have Mendoza be a source of knowledge and inspiration in their everyday lives. I plan to take advantage of our new comfort level with virtual meeting and learning to provide more ways for alumni to learn from Mendoza’s faculty, research and thought leadership.

Finally, the No. 2 question I’ve heard from our alumni is, “How can my work (or company) help the faculty?” This surprised me, but there’s a real opportunity there. Ken Kelley and I both recognize the role our alumni can play in providing diverse and interesting data to our faculty for their research.  I see it as yet another way our alumni can give back to Mendoza. I’m always available to work with faculty if they feel our alumni can be of value to their research efforts.

Alumni Relations can be an engine that provides constant support and energy to the College. Please reach out to me if you have any needs, questions or good ideas that you think can help inspire our alumni towards a culture of service.

In Notre Dame,

Ryan

Ryan Retartha (ND '07)
Director of Alumni Relations
Mendoza College of Business