Masooma Zeeshan's favorite place on the Lahore University of Management Sciences campus is outside of the business school, an area she says rivals London's Hyde Park or New York City's Central Park.

"The school is all glass, and has a stock exchange ticker and hands-down the best café on campus, while the grounds outside are still untainted, with squirrels running here and there, and birds chirping," says the senior manager of alumni relations and lifetime learning at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan.

How did you find your way to advancement and your current institution?

From when I was doing my senior project during my undergraduate degree at LUMS and after working for multinational corporations for the first seven years of my career, I have always worked in high-stress, high-performance and technical jobs. Back then I envisioned myself as a director or vice president of a company. However, when I had twins eight years ago, I was unable to return to my job at Metro Cash and Carry (Pakistan) despite being very fond of the organization.

At that time, I met the then Vice Chancellor Dr. Adil Najam and mentioned how I would like to volunteer in a suitable role at my alma mater LUMS. I was hired into the Career Services Office where the task at hand was to open employment channels for the new engineering school's students (along with the other schools, totaling 800 graduates at that time) and I dived right into it, making and reviving industry linkages in collaboration with the amazing faculty, which resulted in local and international placements of the entire batch in as little as three months post graduating! From there I transitioned to the head of alumni relations and was asked to do what I loved---meeting people and event management, and there has been no looking back since!

What's one work achievement that you're particularly proud of?

Spearheading the actualization of the community learning program, Lifetime Learning @LUMS, which has seen the successful participation of more than 1,500 individuals since its inception a little over a year ago, and has allowed LUMS to welcome individuals of all ages and backgrounds to pursue their passions and interests through short courses in a variety of fields. Also, organizing the biggest homecoming (3,000 out of 11,000 alumni) in 30 years, where chapter heads attended from around the world to be a part of the annual flagship reunion.

What's a professional lesson you'd pass along to professionals just starting out in advancement?

Personalizing everything is the key. From making phone calls to the alumni invited to a reunion, to being responsive and involved in their personal and professional highs and lows, to wishing birthday and holiday greetings, a note on a dear one's departure, or the effort for the coffee session when you are visiting their hometown. It never goes unnoticed.

This and daring to be different and not be discouraged. Of course we benefit from the tips and trades of the seasoned professionals in the field, but having the constant hunger for innovation in programming of events, the listening to the needs of the alumni, of what would make them engaged, brainstorming on variety, surveying and not just reviewing but internalizing the results, is the key! It's fine for an event to have a super low turnout...you just learn, pick yourself up and move on. The individuals who have courage and flexibility with a smile are the ones who will shine.

What do you see as a key challenge facing educational institutions today?

There are many. The fact that the educational system may no longer be relevant in the era where skills are increasingly more valuable than degrees, and the curriculum (albeit becoming experiential) is not comprehensive enough to equip the graduate with life and professional skills. Also, the fact that the economic equation has led to educational institutions churning out graduates by a dime a dozen—all of whom are equally proficient with high CGPA—but lack the opportunity to enhance in non-academic spheres, satisfy one's curiosity and learn out of love, as opposed to what career/entrepreneurship opportunity that it would result in.

More generally, what are some ideas you've learned from a CASE conference (or) how has CASE membership influenced your career?

There has been an exponential amount of learning from my experiences with CASE, both from the conferences I've attended and the site visit from CASE professionals where they assessed our practices in-depth and gave relevant and timely feedback.

The idea that I incorporated most significantly, however, has been elevating and expanding the entire scope of our communications with alumni. By understanding the impact of balanced and consistent communications practices, we were able to incorporate them into our short- and long-term practices, from shaping communications for specific communities (e-cards for events in regional chapters, affinity-based messaging, etc.) and including international content in our annual magazine, to tailoring emails and messages for a personalized touch and using social media to cultivate a culture of collaborative engagement.

Fostering a culture of such two-way communications has allowed us to not just provide alumni with countless methods of reaching out and making connections, but also given them the opportunity to make a visible space of their own in a global alumni network, whether it's being featured in alumni publications and stories or taking on a proactive role in alumni chapters. Specialized communications has been the key to programming based on alumni wish lists and interests, and remaining relevant to a diverse and continuously evolving alumni body.

This article is from the September 2018 BriefCASE issue.