When Callaway Turner was considering a job change last year, she had the benefit of a mentor, Dina Ross, who had not only years of professional experience from which to draw on for advice, but multiple avenues of commonality with her mentee.

Turner ’21 Com and Ross ’04 Com, ’04 Lib are both members of the Penn State Women’s Network of NYC/Tri State Area Alumni Interest Group, created to share insights, support, and resources among its members.

“Because the group is all Penn State alumni, all women, all living in the New York metro area, you have a lot in common as soon as you walk in the room together,” says Ross. “There’s a lot less awkwardness because you automatically have things in common.”

Kim Kelly ’16 Bus, ’16 Lib first launched a women’s leadership network group within the New York City Chapter of the Alumni Association in 2017, bringing together alumnae who wanted more professional learning opportunities in addition to the chapter’s well-established social interactions such as game watch parties and intramural sports. 

The network’s instant popularity and consistent growth gave Kelly the motivation to make it into an official alumni interest group. Since its founding in 2020, the New York–based AIG has given alumnae in the metropolitan area an opportunity “to learn from each other and lean on each other, both from a professional development standpoint and personally,” says Kelly. 

A key part of the group’s success, she says, is that there’s really no blueprint. “People come to our meetings with ideas, topics, themes, events, and we all rally around that person and make it happen.” Members span all ages, career fields, and viewpoints, and the topics they discuss are just as varied. “Our programming is focused on things like identifying a toxic workplace, how to have hard conversations in the workplace, and how to chart a path of growth for yourself,” Turner says. 

In addition to the structured mentorship program, the group started a scholarship fund that they award each year to an incoming freshman from the tri-state area. 

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the way we have taken our central mission of fostering connections between women in New York and helping them shape the careers that they want,” Turner says. “We’ve built programming, events, and messaging that really support that mission.”