When Anna Hovey graduated from Auburn in 2001, she and her husband felt as though they need to move away to find jobs in their fields.
Fast forward to now, and opportunities have arisen for young professionals to make The Plains their home — notably the Auburn Young Professionals program Hovey helps oversee as director of business development and special events for the Auburn Chamber.
Auburn Young Professionals is a program of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce created in 2017. It’s designed to engage area professionals from ages 21 to 40 who are employed by an Auburn Chamber member. Auburn Young Professionals creates opportunities to mutually benefit the employer and employee.
“We want to encourage employers with our hope to help engage these people, so they will feel rooted in our community, which helps with job retention,” Hovey said.
A member directory of all the businesses that are a part of the Chamber of Commerce can be found of the Auburn Chamber’s website.
The program, which realizes the importance of meeting other young local professionals, provides opportunities throughout the year for professional development, for community engagement and, of course, a social component, Hovey said.
In its inaugural year, Auburn Young Professionals enrolled 275 members. They were hoping to enroll 100.
The interest did not stop there. Auburn Young Professionals expected to offer about six events in their first year. They ended up with more than double their original plan, Hovey said.
“Not only did the program participants encourage us to host more events, but we had so many interested sponsors of the program who wanted to host events for the group too,” Hovey said.
The program is continuing to plan multiple events in its second year.
“As we planned for the second year, we decided to be a little more deliberate in our scheduling of events and inclusive of different times to offer events, so that we added breakfast meetings to the existing lunch meetings and happy hour event times,” Hovey said. “A natural sort of spinoff occurred where members of the planning committee host unofficial events during the year to encourage members to attend and bring a friend who is interested in joining the group.”
Of the hosted events, Find Your Place, a lunch offered in the middle of the first year, was a member favorite.
“My favorite event last year was the Find Your Place lunch,” said Auburn Young Professionals committee member, Kristi Phillips of Tigers Unlimited. “I love seeing people come together to discover ways to give back to Auburn.”
The event allowed Auburn Young Professionals to provide information about the various nonprofit groups in the Auburn area, how to get involved in the city’s many committees and boards and encouraged the attendees to find their place of service to the community, Hovey said.
The Auburn Young Professionals also hosted a service week in the week before Thanksgiving last November.
Hovey said the members of Auburn Young Professionals contributed to the community through collections for organizations including United Way, the Lee County Humane Society and the Woman’s Hope Medical Clinic.
This year, with growing membership, Auburn Young Professionals has added quarterly hands-on service projects to their agenda, as well as more events for members to attend.
The program has stuffed backpacks for the Jason Dufner Foundation’s Backpack program which focuses on ending childhood hunger in Lee County, Alabama, according to the Dufner Foundation.
Auburn Young Professionals helped sort previously collected items for Backpack International’s backpack project for students in Guyana while sorting and boxing food at the Food Bank of East Alabama.
Auburn Young Professionals plans to help with the Beat Bama Food Drive this year, as well as host another week of service. The program is still determining which organizations they will support through their week of service, Hovey said.
Auburn Young Professionals’ members were provided an opportunity to attend a meet-and-greet event with the Auburn municipal election candidates.
“Almost every candidate attended the event, and it was wonderful for our members to interact with the future leaders of our community,” Hovey said. “While we as a chamber don’t endorse candidates, we certainly want to provide as much information and encourage as much engagement as possible.”
To become a member of Auburn Young Professionals, check out their website for an application and contact information.
“We allow people to join anytime through the year, so that people who move to town, or change jobs or hear about the program after our January kickoff event will feel comfortable to join and not wait a year to get involved," Hovey said. "We realize that our members have all different types of schedules and are able to participate at different levels, so we try hard to make each event stand alone so no one misses out or feels like they missed something if they have to miss a previous event."
Kristi Phillips, director of stewardship and committee member of Auburn Young Professionals, praises Auburn Young Professionals for its role in the community.
“Auburn Young Professionals has given me an incredible opportunity to be involved in the community,” Phillips said.
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