Alumni and giving · For alumni relations directors and selection committees
A distinguished alumni wall that tells students where your graduates went
Every year your selection committee honors a few graduates for what they have done since leaving. Give each honoree a full story on the touchscreen, from the hallways they walked to the work they are known for now.
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What is a distinguished alumni wall?
A distinguished alumni wall honors graduates chosen, usually by a selection committee, for their careers, service or community life after leaving school, and it often hangs near the main office or counseling hallway. HistoryShowcase gives each honoree a portrait that opens to a full profile with their citation and path after graduation, and new honorees can be published the week they are announced.
Updated
- Made for
- Alumni relations directors and selection committees
- Where schools put it
- Hallway by the counseling office, Alumni weekend reception, Your alumni web page
- Layouts
- Portrait gallery, Timeline, Photo gallery
- Visitors can filter by
- Field, Year
- Cost
- Free to use. No payment details required.
A plaque says who. Students want to know how.
Most distinguished alumni walls are rows of engraved plates, one name and one year each. The honoree’s speech at the induction dinner, the story of the teacher who pushed them and the photos of them at seventeen never make it onto the wall. Students walk past without learning anything about the graduates the school is proudest of.
A distinguished alumni wall on a touchscreen gives each honoree a full profile: their class year, what they did at school, the path from there to their career and the reason the committee chose them. Students can see that the surgeon or the union electrician on the wall once sat in the same classrooms, and new honorees go up the week they are announced instead of waiting for an engraver.
How does a digital distinguished alumni wall compare with engraved name plates?
| What matters | Engraved name plates | HistoryShowcase |
|---|---|---|
| Each honoree’s entry | One name and one year | A full profile with citation and biography |
| Then and now | Usually no photo | A yearbook photo beside a current portrait |
| Adding a new class | Wait for the engraver | Publish once the committee announces them |
| Browsing by career | Read the rows in order | Filter by field or year, or search |
| Honorees far away | Seen on a campus visit | Send the published site’s link to family |
What to include for each honoree
Then and now portraits
A yearbook photo beside a current one, so students can picture the graduate at their own age.
Their path after graduation
College, apprenticeship, service or a first job, and the turns that led to the work they are known for.
What they did at school
The teams, clubs, plays and classes they took part in, written into their biography.
The committee’s citation
The reason they were chosen, in the words read aloud at the induction ceremony.
Advice to current students
A short message from the honoree to the students walking past the screen today.
Induction ceremony photos
Pictures from each year’s dinner or assembly, with the honorees and their families.
How to organize your distinguished alumni
The profile is the heart of it. Let the portraits lead, and keep the induction years and ceremony photos close by.
Your siteDistinguished Alumni
- HonoreesPortrait gallery
One portrait per graduate, opening the profile with their story and citation.
- Induction classesTimeline
Each year’s induction in order, with the honorees named in the summary.
- Ceremony photosPhoto gallery
Pictures from each year’s dinner or assembly.
Visitors can narrow it by
- Field
- Year
How do you set up a distinguished alumni wall?
Begin with past honorees
Enter past honorees from the induction programs, or upload the programs and let Smart Add suggest entries for you to review.
Ask honorees for their own words
Write to living honorees for a current photo, a few sentences about their path and a message to students.
Add each new class after the ceremony
Publish new honorees once the committee announces them, then add ceremony photos after the dinner.
Where should a distinguished alumni wall go?
- Hallway by the counseling officeStudents on their way to talk about colleges see where graduates went.
- Alumni weekend receptionHonorees and their classmates find each other’s stories together.
- Your alumni web pageShare the published site’s web address so honorees can send their profiles to family.
Distinguished alumni wall questions
How is this different from our athletic hall of fame?
A distinguished alumni wall honors what graduates did after leaving, in careers, service and community life. You can keep both on one site as separate collections, each with its own layout.
Can we add honorees from decades ago?
Yes. Start from old induction programs or yearbooks. Smart Add reads uploaded documents and suggests entries with their sources, and you accept only the ones you have checked.
Can honorees help write their own stories?
Yes. You can add anyone as an editor by email. Their changes save to a private draft, and your office publishes when the story is ready.
Can visitors browse by career?
Yes. Add a Field filter, such as medicine, public service or the arts. Visitors can also filter by year or search by name.
