This week, we sat down to chat with Brady Hummel ’17 about his experience working as the Development Director for The Idea Fund and what he’s working on right now.
As the Development Director, what do you do?
I’m in charge of relationship management for the Idea Fund. So, [I] mainly work with Student Senate and the office of Advancement & Alumni Relations. And, I look for new partners, CSE being the first. I work with them to bring new resources and open up new opportunities with alumni.
How did you get involved with Idea Fund?
I did the ‘pre’ Pre-Orientation, which was the Discover Dickinson day before Pre-O was a thing. I did the Idea Fund one, and I was blown away by the fact that everyone was laid back but also super intense, so it’s not in your face, but it was the right feel that I was looking for. They were like, ‘You wanna do something? Let’s do it.’ That wasn’t something I knew I was looking for in a school until I got to [Dickinson] and found it in the Idea Fund. And I was like, ‘This is exactly what I wanted in a college.’
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I am working on building our LinkedIn Group for on campus and off campus relationships, working with Advancement to decide who we should talk to, who we should connect with, and who we should add to our LinkedIn Group. Eventually, when we get that group up and running, probably next semester, I’ll be responsible for content in the group and keeping people engaged. The goal for the group is to connect everybody with all the resources we have at our disposal [in order] to maximize our mission. We have a large amount of direct Idea Fund alum and other alum who would have been involved if Idea Fund had existed when they were at Dickinson. So, the question is how do we get [alumni] engaged, connected to students, and involved in projects?