The University of Arizona Alumni Association offers a variety of services and assistance to recent UA graduates and longtime alumni. 

The alumni association holds a number of events like career fairs, and opportunities to connect and network with fellow UA alumni. 

The association has 39 different chapters across the United States, which includes over 260,000 former Wildcats. With locations in places like New York, San Francisco and even Arkansas, there is an opportunity for UA alumni to stay connected to their university even if they are across the country.  

“The Alumni Association is the lifelong alumni hub for learning and connections. With over 35 chapters around the country, the UA Alumni Association helps alumni meet fellow Wildcats,” said Sarah Beaudry, the association’s vice president of communications. 

The association also helps alumni organize clubs across the country, including a Veterans Alumni Club, Honors College Alumni Club and more. 

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Finding a career after graduating is one of the greatest challenges university students may face, so the association works to help Wildcats through the process with its career advancement assistance services. 

The association offers career counseling, career fairs and career coaching sessions with experts. These opportunities are not limited to those who can make it to the main UA campus, as the association holds sessions in different states and even over the internet.

“The stronger the UA is and remains, the more value there is to your undergraduate degree,” said Melinda Burke, UA Alumni Association president. “So it’s in all of our best interest to stay connect to the UA to make sure the place is doing well.”

Burke added that the UA is stronger with more alumni involved.“That doesn’t just mean giving money, but it means alumni coming back and speaking to students,” Burke said. “Alumni who start businesses and hire graduates, alumni who offer internships, alumni who became policymakers that could affect the university, and alumni who have kids who became Wildcats.”

Burke said that while alumni help the university, they also benefit from staying connected to the university. 

“When our graduates leave the university to start their careers, especially in large metro areas, we have large groups of alumni there ready to welcome them,” Burke said. “It’s an automatic community that you can connect with, and build a social and business network.”

The community that the association builds is one of the reasons alumni stay connected, Burke said. 

“There is a general attitude among alumni that the UA was a great place to be a student,” Burke said. “When I meet undergrads 10 or 15 years later after they graduate, they talk about what a great place it was to go to school.”

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“They met their spouse at the UA, and found their passion here,” Burke said. “A lot of the alumni owe the university a lot in terms of well-being, and that’s part of why they stay connected.”

For recent graduates wanting to stay involved in the UA, the association will be holding GLOW: A Young Alumni Party, the association’s first young alumni homecoming party, on Oct. 26. More information for GLOW can be found at the GLOW webpage.

For more information on other activities of the Alumni Association, visit their website.

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