Faculty guide to Viking Connections

Viking Connections is designed to match accomplished alumni with current students and fellow alumni.  Connectors are available to share advice on careers, industries, employment trends, and organizations within their areas of expertise.   

Faculty can encourage students to use Viking Connections

The program is open to students and alumni from all class years and majors.  Students can review brief summaries of Alumni Connectors at www.augustana.edu/alumni/connections.  If students do not see a Connector who meets their needs they can contact the Office of Alumni Relations.

On the Viking Connections page students can learn detailed information about each Alumni Connector from their bio pages or LinkedIn profiles. They can get in touch with a Connector through the preferred contact information on their bio page, or LinkedIn. 

Class assignments or extra credit

Consider incorporating any of the following activities into your class curriculum.  If you need more materials or ideas please contact CORE/Career Development.  

Informational Interviews
The best way to learn about career fields, potential organizations, graduate programs, or internships and jobs is to find someone who is in that career field, organization, graduate program, or position and talk to them.  An Informational Interview provides this exact opportunity.  An assignment could be to have students to reach out to an Alumni Connector through Viking Connections and conduct an informational interview.

Job Shadow
Job shadowing can be a useful way to learn about a particular job of interest. It involves spending time following a professional in that job. Observing the life of the professional for anywhere from a few hours to as long as a week can help give you a sense of what that job really is like. Consider working with Career Development to tap into Viking Connections to set up job shadow assignments.