A look into Owls at work

Owls@Work is an initiative using Twitter to highlight Temple alumni during a typical day of their work.

Temple alumni are everywhere, yet students are sometimes unaware of just what they are doing after they graduate. That’s why the Owls@Work initiative was created.

The program was started in 2013 by Mollie Repetto, executive director of the Temple Industry Partners Program, and Maureen Fisher, associate director of Student and Employer Networks. Currently run by Repetto, the initiative’s main objective is to show students what a Temple degree has earned some alumni.

“Everybody has a story to tell and everybody’s job is interesting,” Repetto said. “We want to know what people are doing.”

Every other Tuesday, the highlighted alumni is expected to live-tweet anywhere between five to seven times a day from their personal Twitter account about their everyday life during work. The tweets always include #OwlsAtWork and #TempleMade.

Owls@Work aims to showcase alumni who are successful in their fields and proud to be Temple Owls. The program is also intended to help both prospective students and those close to graduating and looking for a job.

“It is all about getting the Temple story out and the individual story out,” Repetto said.

Not only have they featured Kunal Nayyar of “The Big Bang Theory,” but also local alumni who are active within the Philadelphia community.

Shannon Wink, an adjunct in the journalism department and community manager of local news startup Billy Penn, was featured on the program for Sept. 29.

“I think it is a really good way to get an idea of what people actually do in their job versus what their job title may be,” Wink said.

Her main tasks at Billy Penn include social media interaction and the promotion of events and content in the community.

“I think this is a really great campaign that gives students much more access into what former Owls are doing,” Wink added.

Temple Student Government has played a key role in promoting this initiative.

“Temple Student Government really wanted to get involved with Owls@Work to help show what current alumni are doing and really bring light to that,” said Ben Palestino, executive communications director of TSG.

TSG’s Twitter account retweets the Owls@Work alumni of the day and follows the related hashtags.

“There are a lot of alumni that have done incredible things that students don’t know about,” Palestino said. “It is our job as Temple Student Government to show who these people are and give that information to students.”

With alumni like Dan Campbell, Derrick Hodge and Jeffrey Robinson already featured, the next up is Anna Goldfarb, blogger and author of “Clearly, I Didn’t Think This Through,” who will tweet Nov. 17.

Alexis Rogers can be reached at alexis.rogers@temple.edu.

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