Four SPU students walk through Tiffany Loop during an autumn day.
By Bethany Hoff, Assistant Professor of Psychology
How does our college experience continue to shape our lives long after graduation? As an educational psychologist who studies thriving, I’ve been pondering this question for a while. During Autumn Quarter 2025, I teamed up with a group of senior psychology students in our “Advanced Research Methods” capstone class to explore this in our alumni survey.
Our survey grew out of the Classrooms that Cultivate Character grant, led by Drs Brittany Tausen, Thane Erickson, and Krystle Jalalian-Chursky, which focuses on how SPU can help students grow in their character across college. Building on this, and in close collaboration with SPU’s Office of Alumni, Parent, and Family Relations, we asked alumni to reflect on their time at SPU.
Did alumni feel like they belonged and mattered at SPU? Did they have a mentor or meet a lifelong friend? Did they participate in any traditions like the aptly named Tradition? Do they feel they grew in their character, and that SPU was a place where they could experience character growth?
The students in this class will graduate in spring 2026, so they reflected on their time SPU and contributed questions like “Do you feel prepared for your future vocation?” We want to understand how these experiences connect to well-being, character, and engagement today.
As part of the study, alumni get to complete a new Character Climate assessment developed right here at SPU! We are excited to see how SPU’s formative experiences continue to shape lives long after graduation.
The survey was sent to 29,000 alumni in mid-November 2025, and once the results are returned, student researchers will analyze the results to see if experiences at SPU shaped alumni’s satisfaction with life, character growth, and engagement. Watch for a future issue of Connections in which we share what we find!
This article first appeared in the 2026 Winter Quarter Connections alumni e-newsletter.