Poster 16 – LinkedIn as a Catalyst to Leadership Development and Networking for Alumni and Students of a Leadership Course

Presenters:
Meghan Lui, Patricia Gerber

Authors:
Aya Al-Nuaimi, Meghan Lui, Parkash Ragsdale, Lucas Wright, Robert Kim, Patricia Gerber

Poster Abstract:
LuiThe problem we identified: Since its launch in 2017, 65 students in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) Program have completed the Leadership Experience Applied to Pharmacy (“LEAP”) leadership elective course. LEAP alumni (now pharmacists), remain connected to the course coordinator. However, most indicate that continuing leadership development on their own is challenging, and they miss connecting to each other. Via survey in 2021, LEAP alumni expressed interest in an enhanced “LEAP Community of Practice” (CoP).

What we did: We collaborated with the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and with a UBC Career Strategist to design a virtual event for LEAP alumni to teach them LinkedIn strategies and applications, and to launch a new LEAP CoP LinkedIn Group to support networking and leadership development. In the spirit of leadership development, two students led the task of creating the new LinkedIn platform and designing the event. They developed LinkedIn resources, instructions on LinkedIn features, shared best practice LinkedIn profiles, and led the discussion at the event.

Our findings: 14 LEAP alumni and 6 students attended the event, which included breakout rooms based on attendees’ familiarity with LinkedIn, discussions, and launch of the LEAP LinkedIn platform. The distribution of self-identified LinkedIn “novice” vs. “intermediate/proficient” users was approximately equal.

Why this is important: Tracking via LinkedIn analytics reveals that to-date, LEAP alumni engagement is strong, and activity is encouraging. Other programs may wish to consider this model of alumni-student engagement and learning in their efforts to extend skill development beyond the classroom.

Key words: leadership development, engagement

Click here to enlarge the poster
Click here to return to the main poster page