PSAN is a virtual community (hosted through a LinkedIn Group) encompassing past and present members of Pearson Students programs. In December 2015, a team was assembled to manage the network, and together we: • Increased LinkedIn group membership by 166%, achieving the expected goal 50% faster than the anticipated deadline. • Increased group’s activity (including all interactions such as new posts, likes, and comments) by 126% (80 before Dec vs. 181 after Dec.) • Provided Pearson with a database on 103 alumni from Pearson Students programs between 2009 and 2016.

1. May 28, 2016 1
Pearson Students Alumni Network
Project Manager: Joaquin Van Thienen
May 28, 2016
1. Project Background
2. What We Aimed For
3. How We Worked to Achieve It
4. Key Results & Expectations

2. May 28, 2016 2
1. Project Background
Pearson currently offers three programs for undergraduate students:
• Campus Ambassadors (PCA)
• Student Advisory Board (PSAB)
• Scholars
Students from all over North America and the U.K have been participating in these programs for almost
seven years, but until now there was no place where to locate the ones who “graduated” from them. A
year ago, former Advisory Board member, Aleesha Yussuff, and former Campus Ambassador, Nicole
Johnston, worked together to
a) create a LinkedIn group called “Pearson Students Alumni Network” (PSAN),
b) invite current and past members of Pearson Students programs to join, and
c) develop a content strategy in order to keep alumni engaged with the community.
After Aleesha and Nicole moved on to new projects, PSAN management was offered to current
members of the PSAB. In November 2015, Joaquin Van Thienen took over as project manager.

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2. What We Aimed For
• Considering there have been approximately twelve new PSAB members each year since
2009, and 20 new PCA’s since 2010, we expected to find approximately 204 alumni (84 PSAB
+ 120 PCA).
• There were no past Pearson Scholars because the program started in 2016.
• We had little data on Pearson Students programs in the U.K, but because the program
started later there and it has less than 12 new members each year, we estimated they would
account for at least 50 alumni.
• Current PSAB members accounted for 12 more “soon-to-become” alumni.
Based on these calculations we estimated there would be a total of 266 alumni.
In November 2015, we were given permission to manage the LinkedIn group, which already had
a total of 38 members.
We set the goal to reach 100 members by the end of our term in June 2016.
In addition to this, we also aimed to identify which content resonated most with the community,
to then go ahead and create more of it.
Based on the content strategy initially developed by Aleesha and Nicole, we set the following
goals:
• Post 3 “Alumni Questions”,
• Post new opportunities on the “Job Board” on a weekly basis, and
• Host 1 virtual or in-person meet-up between members of the group.

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3. How We Worked to Achieve It
a. Assembling a managing team:
In January the project was presented to 20 selected students during Pearson’s National Sales
Meeting (NSM) in Orlando. These students provided feedback (see example of the given
handouts on Figure 1) on the type of content they wanted to see on the LinkedIn Group, and
some expressed interest in potentially joining the managing team for six months (until their
program was over).
Figure 1 [Handout] NSM Student Feedback
Based on this feedback, a managing team was assembled, which in turn was divided into three
sub-teams with specific tasks:

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TEAM MEMBERS TASK
DELIVERABLE
(before summer)
Boosting
Membership Everyone
Track past members. Increase membership. Use Google
Sheet to keep track of our research.
Reach 100 group
members
Meet-ups Will Virtual (find 2-3 alumni to join current members for a call)
or Local (connect former and current members at a Pear.
Off.)
1
Julianna
Ask an Alumni Alaine
Pick one alumni and research their career, then address a
specific question to her/him on the group's discussion board,
make sure to tag them.
3
Max
Aaron
Olivia
Job Board Martina
Post new job opportunities related to the work we do at
Pearson; can be internal or external
Weekly postingsAlex
Niki
Figure 2 - Teams & Strategy
As seen in Figure 2, everyone was also assigned the collective task of sourcing new members
and inviting them to join the group.
b. Sourcing new members:
A system was developed using Google Sheets to help the team keep track of our research and
the members who had already been invited to join the PSAN.
Figure 3 - Sourcing System

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c. Posting content:
Also based on the feedback received at the NSM, we focused on the three most requested
types of content: Meet-ups, Ask and Alumni, and Job Opportunities.
The tasks were clearly defined and given to the particular teams, which is also shown in Figure 2.
Olivia Pagan, from the Ask and Alumni Team, established a process to help her teammates
better organize their content:
Figure 4 - Ask an Alumni Google Sheet

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4. Key Results & Expectations
The team began working at the beginning of February 2016, and by May 12th
, only three months
after work was initiated, we achieved our main goal reaching 100 members on the LinkedIn
group.
Figure 5 - Goal Achieved, 100 Members
Figure 6 - Members vs. Growth

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An in-person meet-up was held at Florida International University in Miami.
Figure 7 - 1st Meet-Up at FIU
Two out of the expected three Ask an Alumni questions were posted:
Figure 8 - 1st Ask an Alumni
Figure 9 - 2nd Ask an Alumni

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Key results of the managing team include:
• Increased LinkedIn group membership by 166%, achieving the expected goal 50% faster
than the anticipated deadline.
• Increased group’s activity (including all interactions such as new posts, likes, and comments)
by 126% (80 before Dec vs. 181 after Dec.)
• Provided Pearson with a database on 103 alumni from Pearson Students programs between
2009 and 2016.
Based on our experience, the next board could achieve the total of 266 alumni by the end of
their term, in June 2017. Members of the LinkedIn group seem to engage the most with direct
questions to alumni and in-person meet-ups.
We highly encourage the next PSAB to continue this crucial work. Having an enriched and
engaged alumni community is beneficial for the students (who will need connections to land
jobs in the future), and for Pearson (who needs to know where their students are going).