Hello Alumni,
My name is Zain. I graduated from Jacobs University in 2019 and currently act as the Head of Membership Management of the Alumni Association (aka Beyond the Pond) as well as hold the position of the Data Protection Officer.
In my role I coordinate directly with the Alumni Office at Constructor University, making sure that there are no delays in approving and managing your alumni association membership. Furthermore, I support data-related topics, especially data privacy, data sharing, and data security.
In an earlier post, you might have read about our expedition to Zürich, where we met for our yearly alumni board meeting. Unfortunately because of the train strikes in Germany (hopefully no more for at least the next 3 years), I was one of those affected by them and was unable to join the meet-up in person, hence I had to join online. This made our yearly in-person meetup into a hybrid meet-up. We were also joined by the Constructor University Alumni Office consisting of Ilya, Mark, and Saad. Our major point of discussion was to strategize on ongoing and upcoming projects, take a deep dive into the current value and emotions of the alumni community, and see how the association and office can collaborate better.
Being online meant missing out on different activities that were planned for the onsite meetup such as breakfast with the Constructor Academy as well as Dinner with the alumni office with an after-dinner social including taking a walk in Zürich. Despite that, I kept the energy high during the meeting and made sure that every topic on the bucket list was discussed to the best possible extent. There were times when I could not convey everything which is easier done in person during the discussions and sometimes it is hard to hear online due to technical issues. Still, alas these are some things you have to manage while being online.
Overall, I would say the yearly board expedition was more successful than the year before, having a more solid foundation to go on, as well as providing us a reminder of why being an alumnus of such an institute is worth it and how much effort we put in to keep the association intact.