N.C. A&T Study: Alumni Support Heightens Student Engagement

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 24, 2025) – College students who never re-engaged after the COVID-19 pandemic halted their ability to take in-person classes may be more likely to resume their studies if engaged by alumni who share their cultural and general experiences and look like them, according to a new study by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University researchers Kim Smith, Ph.D., Ecaterina Stepaniuc, Ph.D., and Forrest Foster.  

Writing in the journal Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication, the three-person team focused on a question that has bedeviled colleges nationwide: how to re-engage students who have been disconnected from higher education. The answers are more nuanced and complex than one might think, but the researchers were pleasantly surprised to see a clear strategy emerge from their small study. 

“The results show a path toward re-engaging students who were disengaged by the pandemic and/or social media,” said Smith, an associate professor of journalism and mass communication in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and lead author on the study. “It was five years ago that the long shutdown began. We are still recovering.” 

The idea for the study crystallized during North Carolina A&T’s legendary annual homecoming celebration. The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication hosts an annual event for returning graduates titled “The Alumni Takeover.” The event gives alumni a chance to share industry insights and professional advice with current students.  

It also serves as an extension of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Short Course, a four-day workshop aimed at training students to become media professionals. A&T hosts the longest running NABJ short course in the nation. 

“I’ve always been amazed at the alumni support that started from the NABJ short course, and how students gravitated toward these alumni who in some instances are famous, doing wonderful things and standing out as great role models,” said Smith. “The alumni tell them the same things that faculty share with students, but get a very different response.” 

The difference in receptiveness prompted them to dig deeper into why alumni are received differently by students and what faculty can learn from this phenomenon to boost student engagement.  

Using the social identity theory, which examines how people form a sense of belonging within certain groups, and interviews with JOMC students on their experiences with alumni mentors, the study showed that students are more likely to connect with alumni who look like them and with whom they share cultural and/or generational experiences. 

The results also revealed that hands-on activities, the sharing of new skills and relating alumni triumphs and failures bolsters student engagement. 

Although the focus of this study is on currently enrolled students, Smith believes this study will lay a foundation for future research aimed at addressing declining enrollment and retention rates universities across the country are facing. The hope is that the findings will encourage universities to implement creative ways to use alumni support to encourage re-enrollment of students who have dropped out. 

As a follow-up to this study, Smith and Stepaniuc have completed a study that examines the use of LinkedIn as a space for virtual alumni mentorship of currently enrolled students. Much like the initial study, Smith believes this one could reveal a tool via social media platforms to encourage re-enrollment of students who have dropped out. 

“We’re talking about disengagement, and all universities need to be exploring ways to increase student engagement,” he said. “This study is the groundwork of future research that we hope to do.”