At Samford, students have caring professors with experience in their fields, as well as internship opportunities constantly sent to their inboxes. However, when students graduate, they can be left without someone to give career advice and point to connections.
The Samford University Alumni Association is hoping to solve this issue by allowing alumni to participate in a mentoring program for professional development.
Casey Ramey, Executive Director of the Alumni Association, spoke about the new program they have built for alumni.
“The purpose of the mentorship program is for alumni to grow community with one another and grow professionally,” she said.
Alums who are advanced in their career field can apply to be a mentor, while recent graduates who need help growing in their career can apply to be a mentee. Mentors and mentees are then paired by similar careers to give and receive professional advice.
This is the first year the mentoring program has existed nationwide, after their test run last year was focused in just three cities. Because of the modern convenience of video calling and phone calls, mentors can be matched from all over the nation.
Lauren McCaghren, participated as a mentor for the Birmingham area. She is a search consultant for higher education based in Orange Beach, Alabama.
McCaghren talked about how when she was a young professional, she had professors and university administrators pour into her and provide advice for her career, and this positive experience made her want to invest in others.
“Being able to have mentors who could guide me and help me really think through all the career options that were available to me was something that I saw as very valuable and saw potential in this mentoring program,” she said.
In this program, participants often gain even more than just professional development. Ramey has heard from mentees that they often learn more than just career advice, but also how to balance work and family life. Mentors also have remarked that they often learn as much from their mentees as they hope they are teaching.
For the program’s first year as being available nationwide, the association has seen around 130 applicants and will make pairings out of this group.
Although the application process for this year has ended Ramey encourages all alumni to check next August for interest in the next round.
McCaghren highlighted the potential of the mentoring program.
“A mentor can certainly help broaden your horizons beyond what you can learn in the classroom and the fact that Samford is making this program available to either graduate students or to young alumni who are at the beginning of their careers, I just think there’s a lot of potential.”
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