What's Next?

You’ve crossed the stage, so what’s next? Wherever your passions take you, UCF Alumni provides AlumKnights opportunities to stay connected with your alma mater.

Learn about events, programs and initiatives you can participate in after graduation. Whether you’re looking to connect with fellow Knights fans, mentor a student, or volunteer, we have something for you — get involved!

Stay connected via social media and by keeping your contact information up-to-date:

@UCFAlumni

With a UCF degree as a line-item on your resume, you’re already well on your way to a phenomenal and fulfilling career. We want to help you get there! We’ve put together a collection of lifelong professional development programming, services, events and resources to meet the needs of alumni at any stage of career management.

UCF Knightfluencers  are a group of volunteers who use their social media platforms to advocate on behalf of the University of Central Florida. You’re responsible for the energetic promotion of programs, events, news and initiatives for the university. Think of it like this: you are influencers for UCF!

The Young Alumni Community helps guide young alumni through the next phase of life. Whether you are local in the Central Florida area or have moved across the country, this is a great way to remain active and stay connected to UCF with programming and events tailored to young alumni needs and wants!

Whether it’s a group of Knights bound together by their passion for their field of study or UCF fans far from home looking for black-and-gold-wearing friends to cheer alongside, alumni groups are the perfect avenue to stay connected with alumni!

Thank you for checking out the exciting events happening across Knight Nation! Here you will find all types of events on campus and across the country. There are UCF alumni chapters and clubs that host events throughout the year, so make sure you look for opportunities to get involved in your area.

Additional Areas of Interest

Advice from Alumni

As you get ready to transition to the next phase of your UCF journey, we want you to be as prepared as possible. Our alumni advice wall is a project to provide encouragement and support to our soon to be AlumKnights as they get ready to cross the stage. The advice provided includes opinions from a diverse group of alumni with different life experiences. We hope you find this tool useful!

Volunteering

Giving back is not only an excellent way to help others in your community, but it is an opportunity to get job experience as well. Any experience is a good experience, and volunteering will help you as you help others!

Get involved in causes you are passionate about. I find great joy knowing that I have found/continue to find my footing - or as one might say, my vocation - outside of my day-to-day work. This can really bring a strong sense of purpose as you transition into your post-college lives.

Researching what your interests are is a great way to volunteer since you will be able to give back to that interests. A great place to start are animal shelters or pantries especially right now during COVID since it is a type of volunteer work that is social distancing friendly. If you love UCF, there may be a local regional chapter/club that you can volunteer with.

Find something you are passionate about, look up a local organization as they are in more need than national ones that get lots of support already. You can choose how often you volunteer and how but know you are needed, valued and important to changing peoples lives. You won't regret the time you spend helping others.

Graduate and Professional School

It is important to know why you are going to graduate school. Are you going so that you will be more competitive in the workforce or so that you have more knowledge in the field you are interested in or to increase your bottom-line salary? These questions are the guiding questions that help in the decision to go.

If you are thinking about graduate school but are unsure of the goal, take a 2 years to get some professional experience and see what skills you really have. A masters should be for something you want to specialize in. If you are unsure of your career path, take some time to reflect and research!

One of the best resources you can utilize are the associated program advisors. Gaining valuable insight for program requirements, having extra support when going through the application process, and establishing a professional relationship are all possible benefits when connecting with an advisor.

Research the different schools that offer your program of interest and request to speak to someone within that department and attend an orientation. I personally love to go to the campus and do a tour. Sometimes I will ask questions on online discussion boards to get a feel of the school.

Take time to evaluate if it's something that you want to pursue immediately after graduation. Some jobs will pay for your graduate program. Some government programs will discharge your student loans if you enter a field where your employment qualifies for you to have loans discharged. Do this research on the front end and it will save you headaches down the road on how you will repay your student loan debt.

Almost all companies offer a reimbursement plan for graduate or professional education. Look at the pros and cons of using your company as an educational reimbursement as some companies may require you to work for them for 5 years or others may require you to study a specific field.

Make sure to do lots of research before picking a graduate program. The best advice I received was to go somewhere different then undergrad, no reason to replicate your undergraduate experience.