Mission, History, Strategic Plan and the Future

The Office of Alumni Relations will be closed for winter break beginning Monday, 12/23/2024 at noon, and will reopen on Thursday, 01/02/2025 at 8:30am ET. Please refer to a list of common end-of-year questions, here.

Our Mission

Your alumni association’s mission is to enrich your alumni experience and help you foster beneficial relationships in the Johns Hopkins community.

Our Founding

The Alumni Association’s story began about 10 years after the start of the university itself, when, on April 26, 1886, two alumni proposed that a committee draw up a plan for an association. Early the next year, the proposed committee delivered their report to assembled alumni. The report was well received, and the first officers of the newly born Alumni Association were elected. Those assembled then convened at a local establishment where they ate, drank, and reminisced, a tradition they continued each year thereafter and we have happily continued.

Within five years of its founding, the Association founded its first two chapters outside of Baltimore — New York City and Washington, DC — and strengthened its organizational ties to alumni throughout the country.

The first years also witnessed the establishment of “a great bond of union” between alumni and students. “The whole student body,” the class of 1891 observed, “will find it both pleasant and profitable to keep in close contact with the graduates of the university... and active interest thus evoked will strengthen all the natural ties of sympathy and fellowship.”

The spirit of giving which has come to characterize Johns Hopkins alumni was also born early on in our history. As representatives of the class of 1895 wrote, “the association has work to perform: the centralization of earnest, loyal zeal for the university. This purpose could only be affected by alumni themselves when they join with one another in a united effort.”

Our Future

Today, your alumni association continues to foster opportunities for you and your fellow graduates by enhancing your ability to connect to other alumni; remain a vital part of our university’s exceptionally engaged community; and facilitate opportunities for you and your fellow graduates to live the Johns Hopkins vision wherever you live.

We invite you to become an active participant in the future of your alumni association and the Johns Hopkins community. Get involved today.

2020-2025 Strategic Plan

Through the work of the Strategic Planning Committee, the Alumni Engagement Strategic Plan highlights four overarching priorities that will guide the work of Alumni Relations offices across all nine schools through 2025. After each priority, we have included a series of goals that outline specific objectives, and recommendations for how we will approach this work across our schools over the next five years. To learn more click here.