Page 15 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 2 Winter 2014

15
All these channels, however, depend on the effort alumni
are willing to put in. The SPS website and alumni page
provide access to a host of information, allowing alumni
to update their information as life takes its turns. The app
provides a comprehensive database of contact informa-
tion, an alumni GPS, formnotes, and a calendar of upcom-
ing alumni events. All of this, says Rettew, is key to keeping
the network strong and viable, along with the SPS Alumni
Facebook page (which hovers around 2,600 “Likes”) and
the SPS LinkedIn group (nearly 2,000 members). One of
the biggest advantages of these channels of communica-
tion is that they allow alumni to interact within a forum
based on a certain degree of familiarity, which proves
invaluable for the School and its network.
“We don’t have an open line to the Secretary of State,
but it’s certainly special,” Pickering says of the alumni
network. “I think that’s one of the biggest differences
between St. Paul’s and maybe a Harvard or a Stanford.
We’re a small group, and people immediately have a sense
of what it means to have gone to St. Paul’s.”
There are roughly 8,000 SPS graduates actively engaged
in some form of the alumni network, according to Pickering
– through the SPS Alumni Office, the SPS Alumni Associ-
ation, the SPS Pelican Network (a grassroots-type social
network, initiated by SPS alums living in major cities,
including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, South
Florida, Washington, D.C., London, Seoul, and Hong Kong),
and its fledgling service arm, SPS SPARKS. All use com-
munication tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and the SPS
Alumni Mobile App.
Initiated by the Form of 1970, SPS SPARKS is a “social
entrepreneurship network for sparking ideas, communi-
cation, and activities.” SPARKS hosts community-service-
driven events around the country, most recently during
the SPS SPARKS Day of Service to Stop Hunger in Rhode
Island and Washington, D.C., and the SPARKS Inaugural
Day of Service and Sharing in Richmond, Rhode Island.
“I see the Alumni Association as essentially having
three functions,” says current Alumni Association Presi-
dent Sam Reid ’81. “One is to help the School, second is
to help each other, and third is to help the world around
us. When you think about helping the world around us,
those are really community-service oriented. They’re
happening all over the place, and they’re way more than
a gin and tonic and a blue blazer.”
Reid, however, doesn’t dismiss the impact of a good social
hour. SPS alumni have established lasting relationships,
partnerships, and job opportunities through chance
encounters and SPS-sponsored events. Reid remembers
meeting Justin Higgins ’08 for the first time while hosting
an event at his home in Washington, D.C.
“He said, ‘Hey, I’m a student at Tufts. I’m just about to
graduate and I want to work in Washington. Can I reach
out to you?’” Reid recalls. “I only met him once for five
minutes at a cocktail party. That’s all it took.”
Their brief introduction led to e-mails, which soon grew
into a cordial relationship; Higgins felt comfortable asking
Reid for advice, and Reid felt comfortable offering it. As
graduation loomed, Higgins told Reid his plans for the future.
“He’s about to accept a job as a canvasser,” Reid says.
“I said ‘If this is really what you want to do, then I think
it’s fabulous and rock ‘n’ roll, but we haven’t gotten to
the real question: If you had your option what would you
want to do?’”
According to Reid, Higgins held “a very impressive”
summer job with a congressman from Maine. It served
as a talking point during later conversations, and Higgins,
it turned out, wanted to apply for a government affairs
assistant position in the D.C. Division of the Seaboard
Corporation, a company with roots in grain and agricul-
turally derived products. He felt skeptical of his chances,
but Reid insisted. With an ally in his corner, Higgins began
the application process, anxious to hit the send button.
Reid had another idea: “I said, ‘Hold onto it, spend eight
dollars and FedEx it to the guy. If they see that you e-mailed
it, they’re never going to read it.”
“They’re happening
all over the place, and they’re
way more than a gin and tonic
and a blue blazer.”