Over a year after Elon University launched the artificial intelligence platform “Elon Q&A,” the service is still connecting Elon students and faculty to Elon alumni, fostering connections and allowing alumni to give back to their alma mater.
Elon Q&A uses AI to find keywords in questions asked by students and faculty, then find matching alumni to answer the question. Kendra Haskins, senior director of Alumni Engagement, said the platform is kept simplistic to allow for easy access.
“We went specifically looking for something that didn’t require anything,” Haskins said. “You don’t need to download anything, you don’t need to log in. You just go to the platform and ask your question, and the AI will find the alumni with the expertise to respond.”
Heather Packo, associate vice president for the Student Professional Development Center, said she believes the platform’s greatest strength is the networking possibilities it opens up to students of all levels.
“What this platform does is it levels the playing field and gives you access to a network,” Packo said. “It allows students to not only practice networking skills, but build their network and social capital in the process.”
Elon Q&A is run as a collaboration between the Office of Alumni Engagement and the SPDC. Both offices had set goals of 500 questions asked and 1,000 alumni responses. As of Sept. 16, 2025, the platform has had 602 questions and 1,579 responses since Sept. 16, 2024, according to Haskins.
Packo said both offices are working hard to promote the platform to students, even with the goals met.
“We were just at College Coffee the other day, engaging with folks,” Packo said. “We’ve been talking to all of our faculty as well, asking how this shows up in their course or meeting with other divisions on campus and talking to our partners in student life.”
Haskins said Elon Q&A has allowed alumni to give back to current Elon students, something many alumni have said they want to do.
“When you have a global alumni population, most of the alums can’t pop by campus, so we wanted to have something so that the alums who are excited to have an impact here at Elon have a way to do that,” Haskins said.
A fifth of alumni who have connected with students through the platform had not engaged with Elon in the past three years, Haskins said.
Elon Q&A received the College Honorable Mention for the Technology Excellence Award from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Packo said this award is a huge honor, and that it has only encouraged the SPDC to work harder.
“It’s affirming that we are a state of the art career office that is really dedicated to student career success,” Packo said. “It’s not just about getting that job or internship post-graduation, or getting into that graduate program that you’re interested in, but also building those connections, and building your network, because relationships are what’s going to help you get to that next spot.”
As for what’s next for the platform, Packo said the SPDC is working to refine the AI with new features, as well as adding on-campus resources to the database of Elon Q&A.
“In addition to using the AI to match a potential alum to get their question answered, we’re also linking to SPDC career tools and resources,” Packo said. “There’s some on demand career support coming to them right when they ask that question, right here on campus.”
Haskins said Alumni Engagement is hoping to make the platform a part of Elon’s student culture, making sure all students have a chance to meet alumni through the platform.
“I think one of the questions that resonated the most to a couple of us was a student who just was having trouble finding their people, and they were like, ‘How do I do that?’” Haskins said. “And I think they got seven responses from alums with support and ideas and suggestions. And that was cool, to see all the support that the student got. Our alums are just really great people.”