Earlier this month, President Obama declared January to be National Mentoring Month. To promote mentoring on campus, Marquette’s Career Services Center continues to develop its student-alumni connections with its newly launched CIRCLES e-Mentoring program, which sets up current students with alumni mentors in their career field or area of interest.

While the CSC has established some great programs in the past, the e-Mentoring program, which officially began this semester after a trial run in the fall, stands out as a particularly useful opportunity. Through the CIRCLES e-Mentor network, undergraduates are connected with alumni in their areas of interest, regardless of whether those alumni live in the Milwaukee area.

We think this is a great resource for students to connect with a large number of alumni from the convenience of campus.

Importantly, the mentoring also requires students to use the career networking site LinkedIn, and fill out a complete LinkedIn profile before participating. The LinkedIn groups are tailored to specific interests, which allow for a more helpful mentoring process.

The mentoring programs offered by the CSC, including e-Mentoring, are one way for alumni to give back to the Marquette community other than, or in addition to, fundraising or being involved with alumni chapters. We understand that especially in the current economic climate, all alumni may not be able to give back to Marquette financially as they would like; however, all alumni can mentor current students.

According to the CSC, while mentors do not provide job opportunities, review resumes and business proposals or interview students, they do allow students to develop a relationship with someone in their field who is able to offer advice in a timely manner and give a variety of communication options.

Other mentoring opportunities are already available through certain colleges on campus, such as the College of Business Administration’s Mentor Program, the Diederich College of Communication’s Mentoring Program and the College of Nursing’s Project BEYOND.

The College of Business Administration’s program is cosponsored with its alumni association and pairs junior-level students with business professionals in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas annually from September through April.

The College of Communication’s program is also a collaboration with its alumni association, pairing students in the college with professionals selected by the alumni association board in various communication professions.

Project BEYOND in the College of Nursing invites registered nurses to share expertise with undergraduate students to provide direction within the health services profession.

While these programs are helpful for business, communications and nursing students, the e-Mentoring program gives similar opportunities for all students, no matter their major.

With such mentoring programs, Marquette encourages students to seek help with a career search or for general advice about a field of study. However, many fields are overlooked or undermentored, especially those in the College of Arts & Sciences. We implore the CSC to especially encourage mentors in unconventional career paths or for students who do not have defined careers choices after graduation, such as those studying foreign languages, international affairs, biology or other majors.

We’re lucky to have the Career Services Center’s help in addition to that of individual colleges. Such opportunities to network with alumni who are willing to help and genuinely want to see undergraduates succeed in their field is not something available to every college student, and we should take advantage of that, both online and off.