Ask any student today about their LinkedIn profile and they will most likely be able to list off skills they’ve been endorsed in, people they’ve reached out to for coffee and their hopes for growing their network. However, SDSU students and alumni may have a new outlook on social networking with the launch of an online platform. LinkedIn may have some competition.
According to Casilda Pagan, assistant director of alumni engagement university relations and development, Aztec Network is a new platform created in partnership between Career Services and SDSU Alumni.
“The cool thing about Aztec Network is we’re saying it’s a one-stop shop for the SDSU community,” Pagan said. “It’s open to alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff and friends of the university — our donors. Everyone is verified as being a member of our community before they’re approved on the platform. They can get connected through an alumni directory.”
It started out under a different name with the generic platform, Gravity, and now houses the Aztec Mentorship Program (AMP). The Aztec Network platform was formally launched on Nov. 7. Pagan said they have invited 250,000 people to join.
The platform contains a directory of all people who join and make profiles, a job board for alumni, an area for affinity groups and mentorship matching. Regarding the mentorship, Casilda said the hope is for both alumni and students to get the career advice and support they need.
“The cool thing about the platform is they can set some weights, depending on what’s most important, like industry to career fields,” Pagan said. “Students and alumni can participate in that as a very structured program. There are milestones that they hit. There are readings they attend. Things they need to do to be a part of that program. It’s been successful so far.”
Aztec Network paying dividends for SDSU graduates
Vince Nigro, a 2022 SDSU graduate who now works in marketing, said the mentorship program and the opportunity to stay connected with the SDSU community are what made him want to join.
“I have found the mentorship feature of the Aztec Network particularly valuable,” Nigro said via email. “It has allowed me to connect with alumni working in my industry and gain insights from their experiences. The knowledge shared by these mentors has been incredibly beneficial.”
Major Leanne Babcock is a 2008 graduate of SDSU and is currently an individual mobilized augmentee serving in the air force as a joint logistics operation planner. In addition to her military role, her civilian jobs include executive director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit the Dauntless Veteran Foundation and fitness instructor and personal trainer for her town’s Parks and Recreation.
Babcock has been a mentor through the Aztec Mentor Program (AMP) at SDSU and is the chair of the Veteran Alumni Organization board, which is an affinity group under SDSU alumni. Babcock was asked to take part in a pilot program of the Aztec Network platform at the beginning of 2022.
“[The Veteran Alumni Organization] had all these different types of social networking profiles and we were very involved in the Aztec Mentoring Program,” Babcock said. “Throughout all these different entities, we wanted to see if Aztec Network would be a place where veteran alumni, part of that military veteran program, would be comfortable connecting, especially considering that we have a large following on LinkedIn.”
Since the launch, Babcock said the Veteran Alumni Organization has utilized the events and directory.
“For veterans, that’s part of our mission and our organization to help provide camaraderie and networking among veteran and military-connected people,” Babcock said. “Having that tie into the Aztec Network with their mentoring program, that’s a huge asset.”
Jon Aasted, a human resources analyst for the County of San Diego, Navy veteran and a lifetime member of the Alumni Network, said joining the platform was a “conscious commitment” he made when he heard about it.
“It’s a way for me to contribute meaningfully to the school that played a pivotal role in shaping my academic and professional journey,” Aasted said via email.
As someone who is a recruiter and HR professional, Aasted said that the Aztec Network offers opportunities for community and professional growth in ways that differ from LinkedIn because of the communal aspect of being a SDSU-only platform.
“The shared experience of being part of the same academic community creates a unique bond that can give rise to a genuine sense of camaraderie,” Aasted said via email. “Instead of solely focusing on individual growth, I envision this platform as a space where members actively contribute to a supportive community, collectively dedicated to fostering growth and success for everyone involved.”
Aasted said he hopes the platform can continue to expand and mirror the sense of “community service and giving back” that often are found in the social pages of platforms like LinkedIn.
“It would be particularly rewarding to witness the growth of this community reflected not only on the platform itself but also mirrored in spaces like LinkedIn and other forums dedicated to community service and giving back,” Aasted said via email. “By extending our reach to these broader networks, we can create a more dynamic and interconnected community that not only benefits from the platform’s unique features but also amplifies its impact on alumni engagement and contributions to the community.”
Helping veterans and military-connected inividuals
For Babock, she sees the Aztec Network platform specifically helping the veteran and military-connected individuals find community through the SDSU connection.
“Every time I’ve traveled somewhere for a new assignment, I’ve been welcomed by that geographic area,” Babcock said. “I would hope that [The Aztec Network] helps connect our veteran and military-connected alumni in those pockets of geographic communities, whether they’re moving for their civilian job, or school or part of their military assignment, that they’ll be able to connect with that geographic area and find their pocket of Aztecs.”
For Emilio Ulloa, SDSU’s associate chief diversity Officer HSI & Regional Affairs and a professor of psychology, the camaraderie of the platform and professionalism opportunities for students is part of his “why” in being a mentor.
“The opportunity to connect with the students and help them to figure out how to realize their goals and create this relationship at my alma mater, those are things that are valuable to me. Ulloa said. “For a lot of us who work at universities, that’s one of the reasons we work at the university. We’re motivated to do that kind of work anyways.”
Ulloa said moving forward there’s such a wide range of alumni he’d like to see utilize the platform.
“The way that I would want it to grow wouldn’t be about new things but really about reach,” Ulloa said. “I would love to see that the alumni association in partnership with career services can get the word out to our alumni. We have a huge network of alumni out there. I would love to see the [Aztec] Network tap into that as a resource for our students and current students with more reach and more depth than we’ve been doing so far. It gives the students way more options and opportunities.”
As a recent graduate, Nigro said this space for support and connection has already made a difference.
“I have participated in several mentorship opportunities through the platform and plan to engage in more,” Nigro said via email. “The platform makes it easy to connect with mentors in my industry, and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with the alumni mentors I’ve met.”
In the future, Pagan said this part of the overall engagement strategy for SDSU alumni could be expanded to offer a series of online events.
“We are starting that with our career programming,” Pagan said. “In the spring, attached to our career fairs, alumni will be given the opportunity to do a preemptive chat with Career Services. In the future, our groups can use it to host their board meetings. People could have panel discussions. The sky’s the limit.”
To learn more about the Aztec Network, visit: aztecnetwork.sdsu.edu/.
(Photo credit: Sandy Huffaker/San Diego State University)
