The Virginia Carter Smith Scholarship is awarded to individuals at CASE member institutions who demonstrate considerable promise and potential as educational advancement professionals.
Upon winning the scholarship, Lazara Morgan (she/her), Content Engagement Manager at King’s College London attended the online Alumni Relations Institute, in June 2022. We interviewed her to find out why she chose to apply for the scholarship and why she chose to attend the Alumni Relations Institute to further her professional development.
What influenced you to work in the field of educational advancement?
I had previously worked in educational settings with students and learners of all ages and nationalities, though admittedly I was unaware of the wider context, structures, and operations of the institutions within which I worked.
My first two roles at King’s College London were uniquely focused within the Department of Geography, firstly working as a Programme Officer for the undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes and then as Student Engagement Officer. During my time in the Student Engagement Officer role, I organised extra-curricular opportunities for students, managed doctoral students’ records and co-led an internship module for the master’s students, which saw exponential growth in enrolment during my time. I thoroughly enjoyed both roles, but my understanding of the university’s broader functions was still limited.
Now, 3.5 years later, my move into a core department has helped me gain a holistic understanding of the institution and this was a key aim for my professional development.
On a personal level, I truly value what my education has done for me, so working in educational advancement is a way for me to connect my personal experiences to my professional ones.
What is your current role at King's College London?
I am the Content Engagement Manager within the alumni communications team, and despite only being in this current position for 3 months, I am loving it so far!
One of my key responsibilities is producing our monthly alumni newsletters and bi-annual magazine, which involves a lot of copywriting and editing. I’m particularly proud of the latest edition of King’s alumni magazine. I think it’s a fantastic publication and I’m happy to have played a part in the creation of this issue: intouch.kcl.ac.uk
I also develop communication plans and brainstorm new ideas for how to engage current students and graduates, particularly looking at how the alumni office can support them during their studies and when they become a member of our alumni community.
In my career so far, I have been lucky to have won and been nominated for awards in recognition of my work, but what has given me even more pride are the relationships that I have formed with the students and staff at each of my workplaces.
How did you hear about the Virginia Carter Smith scholarship and what motivated you to apply?
I had looked into a few CASE conferences but was aware that my work’s professional training allowance wouldn’t be able to cover the cost. I then read about the Virginia Carter Smith scholarship in the CASE Europe newsletter! I knew there would be a lot to learn in my Content Engagement Manager role so I was motivated to apply in the hopes of attending the Alumni Relations Institute, as it would give a good overview of my new role’s function within the alumni office.
What was your favourite element of the Alumni Relations Institute?
My favourite presentation was called ‘Alumni as an integral resource’ led by faculty member, Mehrnoosh Rayner from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Mehrnoosh allowed us to interactively break down the importance of our alumni relations teams to other internal departments at our respective universities and understand the significance of our position.
Most importantly, the programme enabled us to tackle real-life challenges in group tutorial sessions. My tutorial group looked at: ‘How to embed an understanding of alumni relations within the student experience’, which was an interesting topic and highly relevant to my current role. It was then extremely beneficial to hear what other groups had worked on. I’m also grateful that we had the opportunity of the pre-conference tutorial meeting to get to know each other before the formal institute began.
I’m grateful to have received all the notes and presentation slides, as I can refer to them going forward.
What was your key takeaway from the conference and how will you apply this to your role?
It’s hard to narrow it down to just one, so here are three:
- Network where you can! The Institute’s networking sessions were optional so it would have been easy to disengage, but I gained so much in these slots. I had my questions answered, expanded my understanding, and heard best practices from other universities.
- Connect with others on professional networks. LinkedIn is a good tool of course, but CASE Communities is a great resource too. For me, there is real value in seeing and learning about what others are doing through those platforms. Their posts serve as good intel, inspiration, and benchmarking.
- Make use of the CASE library! As well as having all my notes and presentation slides to refer to going forward, the faculty highlighted the CASE Library resource. It makes a lot of sense to review it first before potentially creating or re-inventing something new, so I’ll most definitely be browsing it to support my work.
To find out more information about scholarships available to CASE members, including the Virginia Carter Smith scholarship, please see our website.