I guess it never occurred to me that online and distance
learning schools like Penn Foster
College have alumni organizations,
but why shouldn’t they? Although
students at Penn Foster don’t interact with each other, Penn
Foster College
apparently wants to keep in touch with its students.
The Penn Foster College Alumni Organization has its own web
page. Once a student completes their
career diploma or associate degree program, they can receive a user name and password
and access the alumni organization site.
Once there, alumni have access to several different services. Penn
Foster College
has graduate and career services which will help alumni writer their resumes
and cover letters, brush up on their interviewing skills and locate job
openings. They also have access to an
online bookstore and continuing education courses.
On its web site, Penn
Foster College
states that they “want our alumni to experience that special bond that exists between
a graduate and their alma mater.”
I’ll likely never become an alumnus of Penn
Foster College,
because I plan to transfer to another school once I finish this semester. However, I like the idea of alumni
associations for distance learning students.
But, why not take it a step further?
Some distance learning schools, like Excelsior
College, have developed
scholarships funded by alumni. There are
no sports teams, of course, so scholarship awards are usually based on things
like grades and need, rather than athletics.
Liberty University
offers several scholarships available only to distance learning students,
including a distance learning alumni scholarship. Other distance learning programs, like the
one at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, have a special newsletter
specifically for their distance learning students. Perhaps if a distance learning undergraduate
student decided to pursue a graduate degree with the same school, they could
get some kind of “alumni discount”.
As distance learning programs become more popular, perhaps
we’ll see the development of true alumni support and organizations. Who knows, there may come a day when a
distance learning student applies for a job and has the inside track because an
employer graduated from the same distance learning school!