Students meet alumni at digital meeting place in Corona time
The International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) has always been proud of its network, and most notably its alumni. These unprecedented Corona times have meant that our current students have not had the same opportunities as in previous years to meet and engage in personal relationships with our extensive alumni base of professionals and guest lecturers.
Early in May 2020, an idea sprouted during an online staff meeting to organise an online event as a digital platform for interaction between alumni and our current Advanced LLM students. IIASL staff members, and in particular Anne Maatman, set out to invite alumni to participate in this Alumni Gathering; the response was overwhelmingly positive and heart-warming. Within a week more than 40 alumni had signed up to the event with encouraging messages of support for the initiative.
On Thursday 14 May, at what would normally have been the end of face-to-face classes, the current students and alumni from the first year (2000/2001) up to more recent graduates, coming from literally all corners of the world - so from Chile to Australia, and from Europe to India - and from all walks of life, participated in the event.
After a warm word of welcome from the Head of the Department, the alumni and current students were divided into 6 subgroups, based on field of law, industry and career segments. The current students rotated through these rooms in several rounds to meet and get to know the alumni and ask questions about possible future career steps.
The event was a huge success for students and alumni alike and will be organised again, whether we are dealing with coronavirus, or any other virus for that matter, or not. As several of the alumni exclaimed: this reunion was even better than a family reunion!