Description
Alma College strengthened student engagement program, Alma Connect, and streamlined campus involvement after partnering with the student engagement technology company Suitable. We were able to explore the challenges the college faced prior to implementation, including fragmented communication, limited visibility into co-curricular participation, and administrative processes that were largely manual. The article highlights how Alma adopted the Suitable platform to centralize student engagement through the Alma Connect program, creating a mobile-first hub where students can discover opportunities, track participation, and connect involvement to measurable skill development through competency-based badges. Over time, Alma College was able to analyze measurable outcomes, including increased participation rates, stronger early-year engagement, improved administrative efficiency, and greater alignment between co-curricular experiences and career readiness. With a forward-thinking approach, Alma plans to deepen integration across campus initiatives, expand faculty involvement, and use engagement data to support retention and student success.
About the School
Alma College is a private liberal arts college in Alma, Michigan, founded in 1886 and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. It enrolls around 1,200 undergraduate students and offers around 50 majors across arts, sciences, business, and more. Known for its personalized education, small class sizes, and strong student–faculty mentoring, Alma emphasizes critical thinking, experiential learning, and community engagement. The college combines tradition with global perspectives and prepares graduates for meaningful careers and lifelong success.
Challenges before Suitable
Prior to partnership with Suitable, Alma College faced challenges common among institutions striving to maximize student engagement outside the classroom. While the campus offered a wide array of clubs, organizations, and leadership opportunities, participation tracking and communication were fragmented. Students often struggled to discover opportunities that aligned with their interests due to platforms being difficult to locate, and because of that there was a lost understanding of how involvement contributed to tangible skill development. Administratively, processes such as event approvals, organization management, and engagement tracking were manual and time-consuming, limiting staff capacity to focus on strategic initiatives. Additionally, co-curricular experiences were not consistently tied to a competency framework, making it difficult for students to articulate the value of their involvement in career-focused terms. The result was missed opportunities to fully leverage engagement as a driver of retention, leadership development, and student success.
Life with Suitable
With Suitable powering the Alma Connect program more efficiently, the college transformed how students engage with co-curricular life. Alma College transformed its approach to co-curricular involvement through a centralized, mobile-first system that was more structured than the previous design. The platform streamlined organization management, automated approval workflows, and created a single digital hub where students could easily explore events, join clubs, and track their engagement in real time. Most importantly, Suitable enabled Alma to integrate a competency-based framework into the student experience. Through digital badges and structured pathways, students could clearly see how participation in leadership roles, campus employment, and events connected to measurable skill development. This shift not only reduced administrative burden for staff but also empowered students to take ownership of their growth. Engagement became more intentional, visible, and aligned with career readiness outcomes. Ultimately, this was able to turn involvement from an informal activity into a structured developmental journey for Alma College students.
Brendan Murdie, Assistant Director of Student Engagement-Student Activities and Organizations, Alma College
Key Insights and Takeaways
- Centralized platform increased accessibility, making it easier for students to discover and join organizations that matched their interests.
- Students completed. more than 9,390 activities, including 5,200 just within recent months, across 657 total tracked opportunities.
- There was a 44% increase of students completing activities across 8 badges offered.
- During the 2024-2025 school year, 59% of students logged in and completed at least 1 event, while 68% engaged with the platform over the past year (and for being partners for only 2 years across a campus of 1,200 students, those are fantastic stats!)
- The platform has transformed administrative efficiency and decision-making, allowing staff to access real-time engagement data and involvement history of their students.