This year, the Rose Institute is establishing a society for its alumni. Over the past four decades, more than 400 outstanding Claremont McKenna College students have worked as research assistants at the Institute before moving on to accomplish great things in the wider world. As a group, our alumni are highly loyal to the “Rose Institute family,” with many considering their experiences here to be among their most valuable at CMC. The society has a number of goals as a group:
- Build the identity of the Rose alumni as a group
- Maintain and strengthen bonds among Rose alumni
- Foster connections between Rose alumni and the Institute by providing alumni input (including project opportunities) to senior staff and the Board of Governors, mentorship and network connections for students, and financial support for Rose Institute programs and scholarships
The idea for the society grew out of a series of conversations during the Rose Institute’s 40th Anniversary celebration in Fall 2013. Those discussions, in turn, led BOG Chairman Darryl Wold to create a working group to take initial steps in forming the organization. The working group consisted of Rose Alum and former BOG member Shannon Kelly ’92, former Associate Director Florence Adams, Associate Director Ken Miller, and Administrative Assistant Marionette Moore. After developing some general goals for the society, the next step was to select a “start-up” president to lead the organizational efforts. Jacinth Sohi ’11 was designated as the society’s initial president.
Jacinth served as Rose Institute Student Manager in 2010–2011. After graduation from CMC, she worked at Google before moving to Uber Technologies in San Francisco, where she currently serves as Product Support Manager for UberEATS. An avid supporter of the Institute, Jacinth has strong connections with many recent Rose alumni and current students and a commitment to building connections among all generations of the Rose Alumni community.
“The longer I’ve been out of the CMC and the more people I’ve interacted with, the greater appreciation I have for the project-based learning opportunities at the Institute and the intellectual capacity of Rosies. We want to foster that same feeling of belonging and passion that you have at midnight finalizing a blog post on redistricting reform even post graduation.”
– Jacinth Sohi CMC ’11
In consultation with Chairman Wold and members of the working group, Jacinth set some initial priorities, including developing a robust database of Rose alumni and conducting an alumni survey. This semester, Rose Research Assistants Ellen Lempres ’18, Skip Wiltshire Gordon ’19, and Bryn Miller ’19 began developing the Rose Alumni Database, which includes contact information, education profile, and employment history for each alum. Additionally, Tamara Skinner ’17 developed the alumni survey, which will provide a more comprehensive understanding of Rose alumni, their experiences at the Institute, their accomplishments after graduation, and their recommendations for the society. Based on this input, Jacinth plans additional launch activities and programs later this year.
“By understanding our alumni better, we’re able to better leverage the depth of knowledge across industries and generations to not only have targeted engagement with current students and initiatives, but also benefit from fresh insights when determining the growth strategy for the Institute in coming years.”
– Jacinth Sohi CMC ’11
If you are an alumni of the Rose Institute, we ask that you complete the survey here. We hope that you will enjoy and benefit from the group, and participate at whatever level feels good to you. The survey is only 17 questions long and should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.
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