Biennial Scholarship Alumni Engagement Survey Highlights TLF’s Impact on Scholarship Recipients

LOS ANGELES – August 14, 2025 – Results from The LAGRANT Foundation’s (TLF) Biennial Scholarship Alumni Engagement Survey provide insight into TLF’s impact on ethnic minority scholarship recipients, with 77% of respondents reporting current employment within organizations servicing the communications industry. 

Administered to 676 alumni between April-July 2025 via SurveyMonkey.com, the online survey received a 74% participation rate, with responses from 500 alumni, compared to the survey conducted in 2023, which received 463 responses, a participation rate of 69%.

To further drive engagement, Ralph Lauren provided a bottle of fragrance for each of the first 50 respondents while Starbucks provided $5 gift cards to all subsequent survey respondents.

The 2025 Biennial Scholarship Alumni Engagement Survey marks the eleventh survey TLF has conducted since it was implemented in 2005. The survey measures the success of the foundation’s mission by obtaining information on the career advancement of recipients, and the impactful career assistance TLF continues to provide for alumni pursuing careers in advertising, marketing, or public relations. 

To measure the success of TLF’s mission, this year’s survey chairs, TLF Board Member and Ralph Lauren Chief Global Impact & Communications Officer Katie Ioanilli, along with TLF alumna Calista Huynh, Senior Associate, Global Citizenship & Sustainability Communications at Ralph Lauren, identified four key survey objectives: 

1.    Collect updated contact information from individuals who have received a scholarship since TLF’s inception in 1998. 

2.    Identify the number of ethnic minorities currently in the advertising, marketing, and public relations industries as a result of TLF’s programming. 

3.    Obtain feedback from alumni on ways TLF can improve its programs; and 

4.    Determine alumni’s professional goals, and how TLF’s staff, donors and board directors can help them achieve them. 

“TLF’s extensive network holds valuable insights that unlock understanding of our effectiveness and are critical in informing how we evolve and best support students and alumni alike,” Ioanilli said. 

“As a proud TLF alumna, I understand the importance of this supportive and growing network,” Huynh said. “I’m excited to work with Katie to ensure our alumni’s voices are heard and further strengthen our community.”

Highlights of key findings: 

1.    Networking’s Paramount Importance: Of all requested forms of support, networking was the top reoccurring theme among participants. Alumni are seeking events to connect with professionals and peers, introductions to industry insiders, and more structured access to the TLF community.

2.    Future-Focused Programming: Alumni are eager to stay relevant, requesting guidance on the impact of AI on the industry, real-world tools for entrepreneurship and growth, and skills-based workshops beyond the early-career stage.

3.    Personalized Career Support: There is strong demand for mentorship from board members and senior professionals, as well as access to HR teams, recruiters, and career coaching focused on leadership and career transitions. Mentorship remains one of the most desired resources. Alumni are calling for pairings based on career stage, industry, or identity, group mentoring formats, and ongoing engagement.

4.    Career Transitions Are Common: Many alumni have shifted into adjacent or different industries such as sales, education, nonprofit, tech, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, often still applying their communication skills in new ways. Several alumni left the industry citing stressful work environments (especially agency roles), burnout from constant online engagement and client pressures, and a desire for a slower pace and flexibility.