Leadership OU wins CASE alumni student programming award
Oakland University’s mentoring program for alumni and students, Leadership OU, is an honoree by the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for Best Alumni Student Programming.
Leadership OU, which is hosted by alumni, was designed to help junior- and senior-level students with professional development. Every month for most of two semesters, 15 students receive advice on leadership, mentoring and networking from alumni mentors and speakers.
The Leadership took the silver award in the CASE category, and was honored during the council’s annual conference in December.
Oakland’s Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Amanda Fylan helped implement the program, which Student Engagement and Outreach Coordinator Hallie Bills currently oversees.
“Leadership OU is a success because of the dedication of time and talent from our alumni mentors and speakers,” said Fylan. “We are thrilled Leadership OU was recognized by CASE as it is the first of its kind across the nation, an innovative approach to student and alumni engagement programing.”
The program has inspired students who have experienced the program to return to their alma mater to help give students a head start at preparing for the workforce. One of those students is Human Resources major Taylor Mobey, a senior.
“It was probably the best thing that happened to me at OU,” says Mobey, who is studying Human Resources. “I’m the first in my immediate family to attend college, so I got a lot of knowledge from people in different career fields that I didn’t have before.”
Being a part of Leadership OU helped Mobey secure an internship at EdEn Inc., a grant-writing firm in Rochester, where she would like to work after graduating in May 2016. Because of the confidence Mobey said she gained through the program, she would like to come back “and help someone like my mentor helped me,” she said.
Students interested in Leadership OU can contact Hallie Bills at (248) 364-6121 or hjbills@oakland.edu. Juniors or seniors must have a GPA of 3.0 or above to be considered for the program. Visit oualumni.com for more information.