Stanford students can get an in-depth look at careers in academia today, as University alumni return to campus to share their experiences as scholars.

The third-annual Distinguished Alumni Scholars Day will consist of workshops and seminars for both undergraduate and graduate students, informing students of the career opportunities in academia. Nineteen scholars will participate, an increase from eight last year and nine in 2006.

The event has centered on ethnic and cultural diversity in its previous two years, and it will expand this year to include gender diversity. This change came about through an infusion of funding and support from Vice Provost for Graduate Education Patricia Gumport, who has emphasized concerns regarding gender diversity.

“This year the event has been broadened to include both focuses,” said Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Jacyn Lewis.

The event also aims to provide a look into the diversity of scholarly opportunities. The participating alumni come from a variety of backgrounds, including liberal arts colleges, large public universities and pre-professional institutions. In addition, some of the faculty attending come from universities that serve specific ethnic communities, such as the historically black Howard University. Organizers hope this focus will introduce students to experiences different from those at research-focused Stanford, exposing students to institutions with teaching focuses, strong religious affiliations and other approaches.

“It exposes people to think about what it means to be a scholar at an institution with a different focus,” Lewis said. “The idea is to expose students to a broad range of institutional types and faculty types.”

“If they just see Stanford, students might find that their interests are not aligned, but might still think that they really want to teach, for instance,” Lewis added. “This allows them to be acquainted with other opportunities.”

The day will begin with workshops for undergraduate students in the early afternoon. Organized by disciplinary clusters, they will take place at five cultural centers on campus, with the aim of integrating scholarly, ethnic and gender diversity.

“These will be casual Q&A’s with the alumni about their scholarship,” Lewis said. “They will center around faculty positions, and research within their institutions.”

Later in the day, scholars will meet with graduate students in smaller seminars.

“These will be more career-specific,” Lewis said. “They will address issues such as how to prepare to become an academic, and how to pursue scholarship at a more focused level.”

In locating scholars to participate in the event, the planning committee focused on identifying scholars from databases and from prior personal contacts, often dating back to when the scholars were students at Stanford. In addition, the committee coordinated with the School for Humanities & Sciences (H&S) to bring in scholars seen by H&S as attractive recruitment prospects.

“If there are candidates Stanford is interested in, the program can help in bringing some of those people here,” Lewis said. “Department chairs partnered with us, and helped us to identify several of the candidates. They also assisted in extending invitations to attend.”

Lewis said that this integrated effort will provide strong opportunities to build connections with alumni, and provide chances to increase faculty diversity on campus.

“It allows us an opportunity to reconnect with them as an institution,” Lewis said. “It’s a chance to bring them in for a possible conversation, and for us to get reacquainted.”

“The University is always looking for new and creative ways to help our efforts at increasing diversity,” Lewis added.