Alumni Board Service Leads to Resume Help, Student Outreach

By Ken Floody (BS 83)

After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1983, I must admit I didn’t give much thought to maintaining my ties with the university. I was happy enough to be free to pursue my own ambitions. I became an alumni association member for a couple of years, but as the pace of my personal and professional life accelerated, I let my membership lapse.*  

I didn’t give much more thought about the university, or my connection to it, until 1996 when I was asked to consider serving on the Civil Engineering Alumni Association (CEEAA) Board of Directors (no “and Environmental” at that time). I took a moment to reflect on where my career had taken me and began to appreciate how much my professional accomplishments arose from the education the university had provided me. I considered it was due time to express my appreciation by giving something back to the department. My alumni association membership was reinstated, and I soon found myself at the beginning of a long association (14 years to be exact) with the CEEAA.

I had the great pleasure to work with a number of talented, generous and committed people during my time on the board. I initially volunteered to serve on the Student Support Committee. I found working with students and strengthening the ties between the students and the CEEAA to be so rewarding that I stayed on that committee during my entire tenure on the board.

One of the activities I enjoyed most was reviewing student resumes during the (at that time) annual February Job Fair. What started as an idea to help prepare students for their interviews at the Job Fair expanded into a much larger effort, culminating in an annual presentation on résumé writing to dozens of students and meet-and-greet events between students and practicing alumni.

I found all these opportunities to interact with the students to be enjoyable as well as personally rewarding. These students are the best and brightest from around the world. To have the opportunity to talk with them, to share my stories about being a consulting engineer and hear their stories about where they are from and where they are going is truly exceptional.

To be honest, although my term on the board ended four years ago, I still take every opportunity I can to stay involved with the CEEAA board and their student outreach efforts. You may still find me in February reviewing résumés at the west end of the crane bay, making a presentation on resume writing, or as a panel member on a Q&A session with practicing professionals. Once I got involved, I found I looked forward to each of these opportunities and found it hard to leave once my time on the board ended.

For the two years I served as president of the CEEAA board, I wrote repeatedly in my President’s Message about the need for our alumni to show greater support for the department. Most often, the needs were financially driven as a result of the continuing cutbacks in funding from the state. Whereas those needs will likely be with us for the foreseeable future, there is another equally generous gift our alumni can bequeath to the department: the gift of your time.  I can assure you, you will receive a return on that investment greater than anything you contribute.

* Today all alumni are automatically members of the alumni association.