08/28/2026
Think back to your first professional reception, conference, client event, or business dinner. For many of us, those early experiences came with a certain amount of uncertainty: Who do I talk to? How do I introduce myself? How do I enter or leave a conversation? What does it mean to carry myself as a professional in a setting where there is no agenda, no classroom, and no obvious script?
As CICS alumni, you also know that learning how to navigate those moments has always been part of the value of the Student Social Learning Program. We are continuing that tradition with this year's Taste of CICS, and I would like to invite you to come back—not simply as a guest, but as part of the learning experience.
Our current ICS students are beginning the same transformation that you once experienced: moving from graduate students into confident, capable industry professionals. At the Taste of CICS, heavy hors d’oeuvres and wine will create the setting for students to practice professional conversation, introductions, active listening, social etiquette, relationship building, and the judgment required in professional social environments.
This is where we need you. We need alumni to provide the authentic professional audience that makes this experience real. Talk with the students. Ask them questions. Bring them into conversations. Give them the opportunity to practice—and, through your example, help them begin to understand what it means to become part of the professional community they are preparing to enter.
You once stood where they are standing now. This is an opportunity to help begin their transformation. The strength of CICS has always extended beyond the classroom. It is built through a community that helps each new generation grow into the professionals they are capable of becoming.
I hope you will come back and help us do that for this cohort.
