Alumni Life Design Experience

Be Curious and Reflect on Your Values

We believe that life is growth. Growth can lead to new paths, experiences, and relationships. To discover our next chapter or path, we must first reflect on who we are and we value most. Identifying our core value can provide a “North Star” that can guide us even if we cannot see exactly where we’re headed. This Alumni Life Design Experience is an investment in yourself and encourages you to be BOLD, FEARLESS, CURIOUS and CREATIVE as you design your next life. This is just the beginning of an incredible process toward designing a life you love. Let’s go! 

Imagine 3 Possible Lives 

As individuals, we have skills and abilities we may not even realize we have. Because there are many facets to us, we want to challenge you to imagine multiple ways you could launch the next chapter of your life by working together to sketch out three possibilities. Dream BIG or create a slight variation – and everything in between. This exercise will build off of your curiosity and values and will allow you to consider alternative ways to live, grow, and thrive. Remember – you are not alone. Tap into your friends, family and fellow alumni life designers for inspiration, motivation, and support. 

Build Connections

Now it is time to involve others! Move the needle in your quest for a more fulfilling life and invite others to uplift, inspire, and encourage you. This part of our experience is ACTION oriented. Identify your key stakeholders and spark conversations with people in fields that interest you, spend the day with someone you would like to learn from, set up a small in-house experience to allow you to better understand a possible next life.  

Know Your Strengths and Tell Your Story

It’s time to do a little bragging! Well, it’s actually time to redesign how you craft your story in a way that showcases your skills and experiences for where you want to go next. Your resume can serve as a snapshot of who you are and the values you bring. Each version of your resume can inspire action as you look toward that more fulfilling life. 

Goal Setting, Using AI in Your Next Steps, Celebration

During Week 5 of the Alumni Life Design Experience (ALDE), participants will take a deep dive into flexing and developing their personal and professional strengths—all while exploring how to use AI in making their life design shine. The week culminates with each participant creating and sharing their Tiny Action Plan (TAP), a set of SMART next steps, with a wider circle of ALDE alumni and mentors. When you TAP in, you not only commit to forward momentum, you also activate a community of alumni who are ready to help you take your next leap! 

We’ve designed the Alumni Life Design Experience to help you figure out exactly what you want next from your life regardless of your age, background, or industry.

The Alumni Life Design Experience will NOT be a good fit for you if: 

• You already know exactly what you want and just need help landing a job ASAP 
• You want 1-on-1 expert career coaching  
• You’re not able to commit to completing the assigned work (about 5-7 hrs/wk) 
• You’re looking for specialized career advice for a unique position

It’s a perfect fit if you:

• Want more balance, growth, or impact from your career 
• Feel bored, burned out, under-appreciated, or not using your strengths at work 
• Wonder how your skills and experience translate to other career paths 
• Will transition to a new phase of life and want to reinvent your career 

So long as you put in the work, you can expect to achieve the following: 

• Develop a better understanding of yourself; strengths, skills, values, interests, and more 
• Clearly define what you want from the next chapter of your career 
• Identify several exciting potential career paths that you could pursue next 
• Learn an effective process to thoughtfully design your career and pick your next move 
• Build lasting relationships with peers who will support you through your journey 
• Learn how to use effective career resources to help you achieve your goals 

We’ve designed the Alumni Life Design Experience to take 5 to 7 hours of work per week including required course time and personal reflection/assignments. You’ll meet with your cohort and instructor two times each week. There is an optional 30-minute open discussion following each meeting for registrants to dig deeper, reflect, ask more questions, and work with fellow alums. You will get the best results when you keep up with the suggested deadlines and attend all your weekly meetings. 

While we really want you to participate as fully as possible in the Alumni Life Design Experience, we understand that you may occasionally have a conflict. If you need to miss one of the weekly meetings, give your instructor advanced warning and make up the work later. However, if you need to miss more than one, we suggest you wait for the next cohort of the Alumni Life Design Experience. 

With the course, you will:

• Have assignments that fit your schedule 
• Spend about 3 hours per week learning career design principles, exploring career resources, and completing insightful exercises
• Participate in weekly team working sessions 
• Gain new perspectives and actionable feedback from fellow alumni
• Activate and grow your network 
• Crowdsource ideas, resources, and connections from your supporters, fellow alumni, and the broader Alumni Life Design Experience network.

Career Design is the act of intentionally crafting your career to make it fit you, whether you want to make the most of your current career path or make a bigger career change to something entirely different. Career Design is all about understanding yourself, your goals, and your options, then making a plan and taking thoughtful steps towards more fulfillment. 

The Alumni Life Design Experience curriculum is inspired by Design Thinking, this process breaks down the overwhelming challenge of “figuring out what you want next” into simple steps that thousands of people like you have used to create careers they love. 

Keira Wilson, (Co-Instructor)

Keira is a full-time celebration enthusiast focusing on what makes us revel and how communities come together to thrive. She is the Sr. Assistant Director of Life Design at Johns Hopkins leveraging creative spaces futurist and feminist lens, host for The Dinner Party, navigating conversations on grief, and performer in Philadelphia’s Vaudevillian New Year Brigade.  

Bringing more than 14 years of experience in non-profits and higher education as a facilitator, career coach, and civic boundary spanner, she believes we learn who we are through a tenacious pursuit of self-knowledge, and the letting go of fear to offer our unique form of generosity. In the past she has worked for Grinnell College in service and social Innovation, Princeton University’s civic engagement, and with Friends General Conference expanding welcoming communities.

Tessa McKenzie, (Co-Instructor)

Tessa W. McKenzie, certified as a Designing Your Life Coach and as Career Coach by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), serves in the role of Associate Director, Hopkins Connect (under Development and Alumni Relations and Integrative Learning and Life Design) after over 15 of experience in training, nonprofit capacity building, and branding. Tessa served as a Life Design Educator with Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences as well as for students with disabilities and international students for seven years. Prior to coaching, Tessa was Public Education Officer at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) and served in numerous capacities, including as an AmeriCorps volunteer, regarding outreach and immigrant advocacy.

Tessa is a survivor of Autoimmune Encephalitis (AE -swelling of the brain). Serving as Chief Resilience Officer of at the International Autoimmune Encephalitis Society (IAES), Tessa promotes disease awareness and support AE warriors through “resilience” and mentorship education.

Janine Tucker, (Co-Facilitator)

Janine Tucker spent 29 years teaching communication, teamwork and leadership skill sets to her players as the Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Johns Hopkins University before becoming the Director of Development for Special Projects at Hopkins. In this role, she supports the Hopkins alumni base through meaningful engagement and unique opportunities to enhance the alumni experience. Janine has written six books on coaching and brings her knowledge of perseverance, motivation and uplifting others to the Alumni Life Design Experience.

• 100% refund – Prior to the start of the course. 
• 50% refund – During the first week of the course. 
• No refunds will be given after the first week.