NAA Gives Alumni, Students an Edge

Alumni association’s career development programs harness the generosity of the Northwestern community.

Atul Khosla knows the power of networking.

A 2007 graduate of the Kellogg School of Management, Khosla was working for a subsidiary of NBC Sports when he returned to the Evanston campus in 2011 to participate in a panel discussion about the business of sports.

A few of Khosla’s fellow panelists worked in the front office of the Chicago Fire, the city’s Major League Soccer franchise. Khosla chatted with them after the conference and then ran into some of them again a few months later at his daughter’s soccer match.

Before the end of the year, the Fire hired Khosla as the team’s senior vice president.

“When you make a new connection, you never know where it might lead,” says Khosla, now the Fire’s chief operating officer. “You can’t plan for these things.”

That’s one of the messages Khosla tries to impart to current students as a volunteer for several career development programs offered by the Northwestern Alumni Association. 

From networking receptions and externships to weekly webinars and a new mentorship program, the NAA is committed to helping students and alumni progress in their careers and build their professional skills. Alumni volunteers such as Khosla are key to the programs’ success.

Khosla has hosted several students for daylong job shadowing sessions at Toyota Park, the Fire’s stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., through the NAA’s Northwestern Externship Program, known as NEXT. This year, Khosla also hosted students for Dinner with Twelve, an NAA program in which alumni and students gather for an informal meal.

“I got some great advice during my time at Kellogg, and this is one way for me to give back and stay connected,” Khosla says. “I get to hear what students are up to and give them my two cents about what I’ve learned. If that helps even one or two students, it’s worth it.”

Drew Kittleson, a rising junior majoring in neuroscience, says his participation in the NAA’s career development programs has helped confirm his desire to either attend medical school or become a clinical psychologist.

He’s attended seven Dinner with Twelve events and participated in two NEXT externships — one with Ned Radich ’83, ’85 MD, an anesthesiologist in California, and another with Simul Parikh ’01, a radiation oncologist in Maryland. Kittleson even shared a three-course meal with alumni last year at the NAA’s annual etiquette banquet, where students learn the do’s and don’ts of dining in both formal and casual settings.

“I’ve tried to get involved in as many programs as possible so I can see from as many perspectives as possible how people have used their time at Northwestern to succeed after they graduated,” Kittleson says. 

Kittleson is also working to build new bonds between generations by serving as a vice president for the Student Alumni Alliance, a student-run group that organizes networking sessions, panel discussions and other events with alumni. “I want to make sure students are aware of all the resources that are available to us,” he says.

Those resources include Northwestern Career Advancement, the University’s career center, which works with the NAA to connect students and alumni.

“There is no better individual in the Northwestern community to explain what a particular career is like than a Northwestern graduate,” says Mark Presnell, executive director of Northwestern Career Advancement. 

Whether they help students practice their interview skills or hire a student for a full-time position, alumni who assist students with their career searches strengthen the Northwestern community, Presnell says.

“If I’m a student and an alum helped me when I was looking for a job, I’m going to remember that,” he says. “In five or 10 years, I’m going to say yes when it’s my turn to help a student.”