Young Alumni Board
Young Alumni Board: ChE Alumni Network and Student Initiatives
The VT Chemical Engineering Young Alumni Board (YAB) serves as a bridge between alumni and current students, fostering engagement, mentorship, and giving back to the ChE community. We’re excited to share some of our key initiatives for the upcoming year and invite you to get involved!
Join our LinkedIn group, HoChEs: Virginia Tech Chemical Engineering Alumni, to stay updated on student engagement and share job opportunities!
Interested in getting involved in the YAB or have other ideas to share? Reach out to us!
Bobby Hollingsworth: bobbyh11@vt.edu | Jim Owens: jtowens26@gmail.com
Upcoming Initiatives for 2025:
Alumni Mentorship Program (AMP):
Partnering with VT AIChE, this program connects current students with alumni mentors based on their interests and career goals. Last year, 30 students benefited from mentorship opportunities. We aim to expand participation across diverse industries, including biotech, finance, and sustainability. If you’d like to join as a mentor, keep an eye out for our sign-up form on the LinkedIn group!
Alumni Career Panels:
We’re organizing panels to give students insights into various career paths, such as graduate school, industry, and entrepreneurship. If you’d like to share your experience and advice, we’d love to hear from you!
Industry Tours:
Inspired by past success, we’re planning more alumni-hosted tours at companies near Blacksburg to give students a real-world look into chemical engineering careers. If you're interested in hosting a tour, get in contact with us!
Real Checksheets:
We're partnering with the department to collect "real checksheets" — the actual class schedules (including co-ops/internship blocks) of folks that went through the program. In doing so, we hope that students interested in many different careers can see a template of something that worked for a particular career path other than the boilerplate provided online. Please contact Bobby Hollingsworth (bobbyh11@vt.edu) for more information or fill out this survey form.
Overview and Mission
The Virginia Tech Department of Chemical Engineering Young Alumni Board (YAB) was established in the Spring of 2023 to support the Chemical Engineering department’s leadership and external advisory board in efforts to improve student outcomes and to foster and sustain alumni engagement.
In these endeavors, the YAB’s purpose is to advocate for the needs of current students and alumni and to propose and/or implement related programming both on and off campus.
Membership and Obligations
The YAB will consist of 8-12 alumni representatives having graduated from the department within the last ~10 years. In selecting members, priority will be given to fostering diversity across graduating years and career paths.
Members are expected to participate in 3-4 conference calls per year with department leadership and additional subcommittee calls as-needed.
Structure and Operations
The board is currently composed of two subcommittees charged with improving (1) Student Recruitment and (2) Alumni Engagement. Members of each subcommittee are independently responsible for developing and enacting initiatives and engaging with relevant parties in the Chemical Engineering department. Each subcommittee is expected to update the full YAB on their efforts and progress at each meeting and as-needed.
The board is chaired by one member who is responsible for organizing and leading full board meetings, ensuring efforts stay on-pace, and communicating with department leadership. The chair will also represent the YAB’s interests as an observing member on the external advisory board. Any member may report on behalf of the YAB if the chairperson is unavailable.
Current Members and Affiliations
- Sarah Christen (T. Rowe Price)
- Ian Davis (Jensen Hughes)
- Bobby Hollingsworth (Harvard)
- Taylor Holt (Johnson & Johnson)
- Alexandra Marnot (Georgia Tech)
- Adair Maynard (UVA Darden)
- Jim Owens (MIT)
- Mackenzie Roach (DuPont)