Building Bridges
From scholarships and mentoring to care packages and study breaks, alumni affinity groups support students while connecting ƽians from every era
Anne Stein ’84
Whether it’s sharing career advice, sponsoring a study break, or endowing scholarships and other funds, four new alumni affinity groups are giving ƽians a multitude of ways to support and connect with students while celebrating identity-based communities on and off campus.
Affinity groups, explains Sarah Smith-Benanti, associate director of alumni and donor relations for diverse communities, create space for ƽians of shared identities to connect beyond traditional class year and regional structures.
“Affinity groups lift up diverse leaders and give voice to their unique experiences,” she says. Affinity groups are about acceptance and interaction and are open to anyone, whether or not they belong to or identify directly with that identity-based community. Anyone with an interest in these cultures and communities is welcome to join in the efforts to build bridges.
Now in its second full year, (GRA) was the first identity-based affinity group to organize, and it has since been followed by three more: the (GBAN); , for ҰԲԱ’s Latine/x community; and most recently the Alumni Disability Alliance (ADA).
ҰԲԱ’s also plans to form future affinity groups around first generation/low income, Jewish, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and international student identities.
“Most of us getting into this alumni affinity group effort are doing it for the current students, rather than ourselves,” explains Noel Green ’94, who co-leads GBAN with Opeyemi Awe ’15. “The more that we can surround the students with our experiences, expertise, and knowledge, the more it benefits them. And I love the feeling of giving back and having an influence on an up-and-coming student,” says Green, who is executive director of a charter middle school.
The affinity groups also have worked to educate and engage alumni more broadly about issues impacting today’s students. For example, GRA suggested an online town hall for alums to meet with President Anne F. Harris. Recently, both GRA and GBAN have hosted presidential town hall meetings to discuss current political events. Even though they were organized by the affinity groups, the meetings were open to all alumni.
Growing the Legacy
There have long been outreach activities to engage Black alumni with campus life — along with efforts to connect current Black students with alumni for coaching, mentoring, and job hunting. And there is a long list of Black alums who worked with and on behalf of students over the years.
The GBAN organizers say they hope that their group will serve as a lasting way to honor the work of the committed Black alums who came before them and be a tangible support for those who come after them.
Alumni from across generations will have a special opportunity to come together this fall. GBAN has been instrumental in helping to organize a to be held on campus Oct. 3–5, 2025, the first such gathering in over a decade. The theme of the reunion, “Rooted in Excellence: Reawakening Our Legacy, Rebuilding Our Community,” is envisioned as a way to engage with the brilliance of Black ƽians while honoring the array of their respective experiences. All alumni are welcome.
Mentoring Connections
Affinity group members regularly talk with students from SOL (Student Organization of Latine), BSU (Black Student Union), and SRC (Stonewall Resource Center) to determine how they can best serve them.
One area of focus has been an intentional partnership with the program, which provides an online platform for students to seek guidance and support from alumni, and for alumni to share their experiences and insights.
When Kristina Hall ’27, a BSU cabinet member and economics major signed up for Mentorƽ, she was paired with Kari Bassett ’98, who co-chairs GBAN’s Student Engagement Committee and oversees the Iowa Black History Research Collective.
“I wanted to meet with Black alumni specifically because as a Black woman, I wanted to see how (Kari) handled any academic or personal hardships and get any advice she could give me,” Hall says. “Having these affinity groups for students (like the Black Student Union) to connect with someone of a similar race, or cultural identity, or other identities, is important.”
Bassett, who lives outside Des Moines and frequently comes to campus, says she is impressed with the level of engagement with affinity groups by students. “I really commend current students because they’re actually interested in interacting with us,” says Bassett, who admits she was “completely terrified of alumni” when she was a student.
Juliana Gaddis ’25 previously served as BSU co-president and did an internship with Bassett on Iowa Black history two summers ago. “When you’re a student, it feels like the relationship between students and alumni is really distant. But meeting with Kari and other Black alumni helped close that gap.”
Packages Filled with Care
Even the simplest gestures can create important connections. Many alums make care packages for students as a part of the Alumni Care Package project that was first launched by a group of alumni on the Everyday Class Notes (ECN) Facebook page. Now in its 11th year, the project is aimed at sending every ƽ student a small package of goodies in late February.
A group of alumni have done LGBTQIA+ care packages for years and sometimes labels such as, “This package contains Queer Pride (and also food)” or “Asian Snacks to Share with Friends” offer hints about the theme of the contents inside. Many alums include notes about their time on campus and offer words of encouragement.
GRA has become active as a group in the Alumni Care Packages program, putting together queer-themed packages. Recently, Conexiones members also decided to participate in the Alumni Care Package project as a group. In addition, GRA, Conexiones, and GBAN coordinate with staff on campus to sponsor study breaks for students during finals and other stressful times, and they often purchase culturally specific foods that are popular with the students for those breaks.
From Scholarships to Drag Shows
(GRA) has four committees, a quarterly newsletter, and Pride Month alumni get-togethers. gatherings were held in nine cities this year.
GRA has also created an endowed internship fund — Kian Witherspoon ’25 was the first recipient to receive support from that fund last summer — and has established an endowed scholarship fund that will support an award to be given for the first time this year.
“We have about 500 members,” says Rick Rose ’88, a communications professional who co-chairs the group with Carly Jerome ’11. “It’s not just for LGBTQIA+ people; it’s also for allies.”
The past two years the group has sponsored Drag Show as a fundraiser at Reunion. Last year they raised about $20,000 to finish endowing the Rainbow Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund. This year, the show raised more than $17,000 from over 200 donors.
The second fund is the Rainbow Alumni Endowed Internship Fund, which annually will provide full funding to a student from any identity group to complete an internship at an LGBTQIA+ nonprofit. The internship was initially funded by a single alum but since then, says Rose, “we’ve raised about $100,000 from scores of alumni.”
As the first Rainbow intern, Witherspoon spent the summer at Coextensive Collective, an experimental art collective focused on the queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) community in Houston. “It was life-changing,” they say. “I built networks of care, grew professionally, and had a blast along the way!”
In addition to scholarships, GRA encourages members to donate to the Stonewall Resource Center, a staff-supported multipurpose space in Younker Hall that serves the LGBTQIA+ community and other student groups. The center will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026.
There have always been generous and involved queer alumni, says Rose, explaining why he and others have put so much effort into this affinity group. Those who founded the GRA also wanted to build better connections between alumni and the LGBTQIA+ community on campus. “We felt like it was time to establish something more focused that not only supports students (as well as faculty and staff) but reminds people that regardless of their experience at ƽ, students can use their help and advice. This is an opportunity to make things better for students and to reconnect with the College.”
In a survey of GRA members, the mentorship program was ranked highest in interest. “There’s a strong desire to support students directly,” says Rose, “and queer people helping other queer people is a very personal and fulfilling part of being a volunteer. And being able to work one-on-one via a mentorship is particularly fulfilling.”
GRA also sponsors study breaks at Stonewall Resource Center as well as the Lavender Brunch celebration for graduating students.
Connections Grow into Conexiones
The Conexiones alumni group officially launched in September 2024 and is co-chaired by Jasmine E. Sánchez ’10 and Luis Hernandez ’15. “We’re a group of alumni who identify as Latinx/Latine,” says Sánchez, “and we’re building community with students and reconnecting alumni who have a wealth of experience to build bridges across generations, so students have a network and don’t feel alone at college or when they leave.”
“Our mission is to support and develop lifelong relationships with ƽ alumni, current students, and with other alumni communities.”
Sánchez says the group is building slowly but surely. To attract members, Conexiones shares stories about and profiles of Latinx/e students and alumni via social media and meets with student leaders from the College’s Student Organization of Latine (SOL). Conexiones and SOL focus on uplifting Latine/x alumni and current Latine/x students, respectively, and are open to any interested alumni and students.
“We need to know what students’ needs are,” she says. “If we don’t, we aren’t doing our job.” Among other topics, Sánchez says, students are interested in hearing from alumni about their career paths, how internships helped them, and how they have looked for jobs. SOL student leaders also support leadership development as they host campus events and build community on campus.
Sánchez has met with students and talked to them about navigating life as a first-generation college student, balancing work study with academics, and being away from family for the first time.
“Sometimes you don’t have to take action,” she says. “You can just listen, and I think it is reassuring to students. It’s important to connect in informal spaces and just say ‘hello.’”
In addition to putting together care packages, Conexiones has sponsored study breaks with snacks and a get-together with students and alumni at Reunion. As membership continues to grow, the group is planning to have alumni social events in different cities during Latine Heritage Month and to sponsor career conversations and panels with other affinity groups and students.
“Sometimes you just want to be in a space where someone understands your lived experience,” says Sánchez, about why affinity groups are important. “For me as a student, it would have been great to hear from first-gen, low-income, first-born alums about carrying all the pressures of how do I graduate, how do I land a job successfully, and navigating other things that my parents didn’t know about.”
“I also enjoy building community across generations because as alums; we have so much to share, but most importantly, we have so much to learn from current students on campus,” she says. “At the end of the day, we want to make sure that students who connect with us feel seen, held, and cared for.”
A New Disability Alliance
The fourth affinity group, and the newest, is the Alumni Disability Alliance (ADA), headed by Emma Potter ’24 and Em Huss-Lederman ’24. The program is just getting started, says Huss-Lederman, who currently works for the College in Alumni Relations as a program coordinator and previously worked in the Disability Resources office when she was a student at ƽ. The group is open to all alums and allies.
At the first of three meetings so far, ADA leaders talked to students about what could be done to support them and help them navigate disability resources on campus. Then they had a roundtable with alums, and Autumn Wilke, the College’s associate chief diversity officer for disability resources, to learn about current issues on campus and discuss what alums think is important.
Topics included how to navigate the transition from college to graduate school; how to access accommodations processes; how to help students get through externships; how to navigate job hunting and careers with a disability; how to handle invisible disabilities; and how alumni can support students and one another.
“As alumni, the ADA allows us to find community post-ƽ, to reconnect and build new connections. It allows us to bounce ideas off one another to continue to support each other and current ƽians,” Huss- Lederman says.
The ADA also celebrated student graduates with disabilities last spring. Each graduate was awarded a pin by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, along with contact information for the affinity group in case they have questions or need advice. Potter also spoke at the ceremony. In the future, ADA plans to help fund the Disability Cultural Center, located in Steiner Hall, with furniture, snacks, activities, and other items students might like.
“To be able to pass on any helpful knowledge that benefited us and can benefit students as they graduate from ƽ, to make that transition as easy as possible for them, allows us to continue our support for the ƽ community as alumni,” Huss-Lederman says. “We’re excited to see how things grow and develop.”
For Your Information
Every ƽ alumni affinity group is open to all alums, without regard to identity. Alums interested in getting involved with any of the alumni affinity groups can contact Sarah Smith-Benanti at smithben@grinnell.edu or 641-269-9888.
Learn More Online
Affinity Groups:
Rainbow Alumni:
Black Alumni:
Conexiones: