For Dave Freier ’79, life after retirement is about ‘paying it forward’.
The retired 3M product and manufacturing engineer was on campus April 10 with other Hamline graduates for a networking session with interested students. The event was entitled “Rise: Student/Alumni Networking Reception” and was hosted by the Alumni Relations Office, Career Development Center and Alumni Board of Directors, which also had a crucial role in designing the program.
“In general, Hamline provided a lot for me, so it’s time to pay back to Hamline,” he said. “This is a great way to do that -- if I can help students, I’m happy to do so.”
Freier was one of a group of engaged, active alumni that met with Hamline students that night, trading information and sharing ways to help the students take their first steps in the working world. The purpose of the event was to allow alumni to help students with their networking skills, and give feedback to help them improve.
One of those students was Emmett Frett ’25 (pictured above). Frett is a homeschooled Economics and Finance double major, who had definite plans for the event and even more definite plans for his post-Hamline career.
“You can always learn,” Frett said. “Networking is not a one-and-done sort of thing. You can always refine your ‘elevator pitch’ if you’re talking about business or improve skills of getting to know people and asking good questions. You can always grow.”
Frett plans to parlay his experience into a career that meets personal goals and moralities mixed with his degree.
“Some of the directions finance and economics pushes you don’t always align with where I want to go in the world, and I can struggle with that,” Frett said. “I would like to…help where theaters or arts organizations or creative people in general need help. I would like to have my degree help people beyond plugging numbers into the ether.”
That will likely lead the senior into the Peace Corps after graduation. Frett hopes to work in Albania with an economic development group there.
A third perspective came from Emily Miles ’25, a senior from Inver Grove Heights, Minn. She is majoring in English and Communications Studies with concentrations in cultural rhetoric, professional writing, editing and publishing.
She’s also a student employee both for Hamline’s Alumni Relations Office and the Wesley Center -- so she’s already networked, but with both students and alumni alike.
“I love doing events, especially with alumni and students,” Miles said. “I see the interactions between people, some of whom were here in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It’s great to see the generations come together.”
Miles took part in some of the networking as well, and noted that it fit well with her major. “I get to learn about all these people and their different backgrounds, which fits in with my major,” she said, “The university gave me knowledge and more connections than I would have had at a bigger university. It’s a small school but you get so many good connections, who can help me network with others. You can make more of your way for yourself here than at a bigger university.”
Whatever their motivations, Freier noted that everyone in the room was pulling in the same direction.
“I think it’s tough for students,” he said. “A lot of these skills you don’t learn until you get out in the real world. Learning them early is great, because bringing these skills into the working world will help them immensely.”
“You learn more from listening than you do from talking,” Freier added. “Make sure that you listen to people around you. Sometimes they have better ideas than you do.”