Nan E. Wilson '81 didn't want to hire just anyone for her advertising firm. She wanted a Harvard alum. And, as a minority graduate of the College, she hoped to give a fellow minority graduate a helping hand.

So she put out the word through her colleagues at the Associated African American Harvard Alumni (AAAHA). Over the next few days, Wilson estimates she received 10 to 15 resumes from black Harvard graduates--far more than she expected.

"I'm a real advocate of old-boy, new-girl networks," says Wilson, who oversees music business advertising. "I want a Harvard person working with me, and I'm straight up about it."

For Wilson and other minority graduates excluded from traditional Harvard networks, AAAHA is a way to connect professionally with other black alumni. According to the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), it is the only minority network of its kind to correspond with the Harvard group.

"In our individual work situations, people tend to feel isolated," Wilson says of minority alumni from top schools. "There's not a lot of us who have had the experience of going to a Harvard."

R. John Smith '77-'80 has been on the receiving end of the network as vice president of operations at CitySoft. The Web site design firm contracts with inner-city engineers to design sites for clients, giving them an entry into the corporate world.

Though CitySoft may not have well-known engineers, large firms still sign on with the company. Several of those, Smith says, first found the company through AAAHA. He explains that minority alumni are simply more sympathetic to his company's cause.

"The minority alums know what it means to be in both worlds, so they tend to be open," he says.

The network works, as Smith and Wilson can attest to. Now, the task at hand for AAAHA members is to strengthen the six-year-old organization.