Serendipitous and deliberate alumni connections are woven throughout 2016 International Relations graduate Aimee Oda’s life in Washington, DC. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, she needed a place to live during graduate school. Reaching out to her fellow alumni, she found Frances Klaverkamp’16, a sorority sibling, was native to the DC area. What started as a joking offer to live in the lower level of Frances’s childhood home soon became reality. Aimee says of the network of DC Beloiters, “when I first moved out here it was great to connect with other Beloiters since I knew very few people in the area.”

Her alumni connections continued to prove fruitful after schooling, saying, “After I finished my master’s program I was able to connect with Beloit alumni for informational interviews as I began my career.” Aimee was accepted into an AmeriCorps position for a year. Placed with Reading Partners DC, a non-profit that manages a literacy intervention in Washington, DC, public and charter schools, Aimee stayed on after her program ended as a program associate. At work, she focuses on education equity and mostly work in Wards 7 & 8 in southeast DC; because of historic inequities in DC, they mostly serve black and brown students. She oversees their partnerships with three of the 17 schools they serve.

Outside of her professional work, Aimee stays connected to her sorority siblings, both in person and via social media. Over this summer, she had the chance to see many of them in person at a wedding. Additionally, she hosts Beloiter’s Unite events for the Alumni Office, allowing her to meet and mingle with alumni she may not have had the chance to connect with otherwise.