Commencement celebrates how far students have come. At Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS), it also marks the beginning of something new: membership in a lifelong alumni community.
Just days after Commencement, that next chapter came to life as more than 300 alumni, faculty, program leaders, and recent graduates gathered in New York City for the SPS Alumni Networking Reception: Welcoming the Class of 2026, the School’s largest annual alumni gathering.
The room brought together people at very different points in their SPS journeys. New graduates were taking their first steps as alumni. Returning alumni were reconnecting with former classmates and faculty. Graduates from different programs and industries were meeting one another, exchanging ideas, and discovering connections that might never have happened within the boundaries of a single classroom or degree program.
It was a celebration, but it was also a glimpse of what an SPS education can continue to offer long after graduation.
A Tradition That Keeps Growing
For the past several years, SPS has brought its alumni community together through its annual networking reception, creating a tradition around one of the most important transitions in the student experience: becoming an alum.
Each year, more alumni return, more professional paths intersect, and a new graduating class joins a network that now includes more than 18,000 SPS alumni. This year, more than 300 attendees filled the room.
Among them were tech startup founders, nonprofit directors, corporate executives, financial advisors, and professionals at every stage of their careers. Bringing that range of experience together makes the breadth of the SPS network tangible — and creates opportunities for alumni who might never otherwise cross paths to meet, exchange ideas, and support one another.
Those conversations can lead to mentorship, collaboration, professional opportunities, or simply a valuable new connection. Over time, those individual interactions are what transform the size of the SPS network into something more meaningful: an active community graduates can turn to throughout their careers.
Connections That Continue Beyond the Classroom
For faculty and program leaders, the reception also offered an opportunity to see where former students’ SPS experiences have taken them, and how the relationships formed at Columbia continue to evolve.
“It was wonderful to hear how our alumni have taken the skills they developed during their time with us into exciting and impactful careers,” said Kitty Kay Chan, Ph.D., professor of practice and program director of the M.S. in Applied Analytics program. “Just as rewarding was seeing how the friendships and connections formed here continue to enrich their lives long after graduation.”
That continuity is an important part of the SPS alumni experience.
Graduation may change the way alumni engage with the School, but it does not have to end that engagement. Alumni can return with years of professional experience, new ideas, industry knowledge, and connections of their own, and share those experiences with fellow graduates and the generations that follow them.
For Rudy Rodriguez (’22SPS, Technology Management), the reception carried particular meaning. Now a faculty member as well as an alumnus, Rodriguez embodies that continuity: a graduate who remains engaged with SPS while bringing his own professional experience back to the community.
“It was wonderful to attend the 2026 SPS Alumni Networking Reception and celebrate the newest graduates as they join the Columbia SPS community,” Rodriguez said. “One of the things I value most about SPS is the opportunity to connect with alumni across disciplines and learn from the diverse experiences that bring us together. It’s great to see people meeting and exchanging ideas in real time. Events like this reception are a great reminder that the relationships and conversations that begin at SPS continue long after graduation.”
Throughout the evening, those relationships were being renewed and created in real time: alumni reconnecting across class years, graduates meeting people outside their own programs, faculty learning where former students’ careers had taken them, and the class of 2026 beginning to understand the scale of the community they had just joined.
From New York to the World
New York City has been at the center of the annual reception and remains an important gathering place for the SPS community. It is where many alumni studied, built friendships, expanded their professional networks, and became part of Columbia.
But SPS alumni are building their careers and lives far beyond New York. And increasingly, SPS is bringing the alumni experience to them.
Over the last two years, SPS has expanded both the number and reach of alumni receptions around the world, bringing graduates together in the cities and regions they now call home. Previous receptions have brought alumni together in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok, and other cities.
Looking ahead to 2026-2027, SPS Alumni Relations will continue hosting receptions in these established locations while expanding to new regions with growing alumni communities, including Seattle and Singapore.
Each gathering will be shaped by its local alumni community, but together they advance a shared goal: turning a global alumni network into an active global community.
For a school whose graduates build careers across industries, organizations, cities, and countries, that work matters. Alumni engagement keeps relationships alive across distance and time. It creates opportunities for graduates to learn from one another, share professional experiences, build new relationships, reconnect with Columbia, and help mentor the next generation of leaders at SPS.
And as SPS continues to grow, so does the potential of that network.
The Class of 2026 Is Just Getting Started
For the newest members of the alumni community, the May reception offered an early glimpse of what that network can mean to them.
Only days earlier, members of the Class of 2026 had celebrated the completion of their studies. At the reception, they found themselves standing alongside graduates who had once been exactly where they were: alumni who had since built careers across industries, assumed leadership roles, moved around the world, and continued to find their way back to SPS.
For returning alumni, the evening was also an opportunity to share what they have learned with new graduates following in their footsteps, a role Nikolai Knight (’22SPS, Applied Analytics) sees as one of the most powerful functions of the Columbia alumni network.
“I think the Columbia alumni network is important because we get to transfer knowledge down,” Knight said. “When it comes to transitioning to the corporate world, knowing someone on the inside who can give you firsthand experience about the work you’re getting into is life-changing.”
That cycle is what makes an alumni community stronger. Each year, a new class graduates. Each year, more alumni return. And now, as SPS creates more opportunities for graduates to gather around the world, each connection adds another thread to a community spanning programs, professions, generations, cities, and countries.
For the class of 2026, Commencement marked the completion of an important chapter.
Their SPS alumni story is only beginning.
About Alumni Relations
The Office of Alumni Relations at Columbia University School of Professional Studies fosters a lifelong professional network among its global community of more than 18,000 alumni. By offering a range of networking and learning opportunities, social and athletic events, shared interest groups, global alumni clubs, and career resources, the office empowers alumni and students to forge meaningful connections with thought leaders and innovators across various industries. Additionally, it provides fundraising opportunities that support the development of future leaders and change-makers in both public and private sectors.
