The Soaring Together Conference 2022 The Beginning of a Movement
Soaring Together Women’s Conference: The Beginning of a Movement 2022 • How do we nurture a diverse, connected, active community of women at Lehigh? What are the strategies, the tactics, the goals? • What are we currently doing that we could improve to accomplish some of these goals? What should we be doing? • What does a woman’s relationship with Lehigh look like over time? • Where, when, and how does fundraising fit in? • What does success look like? Lehigh women wrestled with these questions – and many others – at the spring 2022 Soaring Together Women’s Conference, a step toward building a more powerful alumnae community. “ There were so many great ideas, discussions, brainstorms…” Conference participant As part of Soaring Together: Celebrating Lehigh Women and 50 Years of Coeducation,” Lehigh’s Development and Alumni Relations team brought together a group of alumnae who support Lehigh through their time, talent, and treasure to share their feelings about Lehigh and how they want to connect to each other and back to the university. Joined by university leaders, members of the Board of Trustees, students, faculty, and President Joseph J. Helble ’82, 70 participants engaged in activities and discussions, beginning a conversation about how to strengthen Lehigh’s network of women for the next 50 years and beyond. Leading the Conversation: About Kathleen Loehr The Soaring Together conference featured keynote speaker Kathleen Loehr, a nationally recognized leader in women’s philanthropy and engagement. Loehr set the stage with a compelling presentation on key principles around engaging women through trust (with the institution), ties (with the community), and testimony (widening the circles). Kathleen Loehr | April 9, 2022 Soaring Together Women’s Conference Visit kathleenloehr.com for more information.
Here are just a few reflections from the event, which was just the first of many opportunities that alums will have to contribute their ideas and talents. Alumnae told Lehigh… • Get the data right. • Ask for our expertise. • Listen and respond. • Commit resources. • Ensure women are represented and celebrated. • Recruit more alumnae. • Recruit more diverse alumnae. • Help us interact and support each other. • Think about women’s life stages. • Appreciate full-time parents and other aspects of life, not just careers. • Put the spotlight on women. • Offer more tools to allow more people to create more gatherings. • Do more local gatherings. • Encourage engaged women to widen the circle via personal invitations to their networks. Reflections • Alumnae want to support and guide students, participate in and offer their own knowledge for lifelong learning, and work with staff and faculty to contribute to Lehigh’s upward trajectory. • Lehigh needs to incorporate all voices: race, ethnicity, class years, career paths, life experiences, majors, geographies, genders. • Lehigh should tap into sororities, athletic teams, musical, and performance groups, and other affinities to grow the community. • Time and talent need to be more acknowledged, and their impacts need to be communicated. • Engagement will lead to giving; but trust has to be more firmly established among women as a community. • The university needs to better tell the story of Lehigh women. • The conference was amazing: We felt listened to and valued… but…this can’t be a one-time event; it’s just the start of building a community.
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5 Next Steps Based on the discussions and feedback, Lehigh’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations is taking action on some immediate next steps. • Inviting additional feedback from event attendees. • Inviting alumnae to assess current tools used to connect alumni to each other, to students, and to the institution, such as the digital mentoring/networking platform Lehigh Connects, the new alumni website, and the regional program Dinners for 12. • Adding a new staff position for a Director of Alumnae Engagement. • Working with current Soaring Together advisors; select members of the Board of Trustees; the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity; and other key stakeholders to help think through the action plans for fall 2022 and beyond. • Weaving together staff-identified ideas and priorities with ideas and feedback from alumnae. “ It was great, and Lehigh listened. We’ll see what happens next.” Conference participant Are You In? Lehigh is planning additional opportunities to bring Lehigh women together, on campus and around the country, to discuss how to build and strengthen the alumnae network. For more information about how you can participate, contact AlumniRelations@lehigh.edu. About Soaring Together Lehigh is marking the 50th year of undergraduate coeducation with a university-wide celebration of the impact and contributions of Lehigh women — past, present, and future. Find events, profiles, and more information at lehigh.edu/soaringtogether.
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