In a little under six months, Marquette students will connect with Marquette alumni to begin a relationship that will take place over the course of an academic year and potentially beyond.
The Marquette Mentors Program is looking for new students to partake in the program for the 2022-2023 academic year. It was established during the 2013-2014 school year and continues to run through each academic year. Mentors and mentees meet monthly, virtually or in-person depending on the mentor’s geographical location.
The program, which is run through the Marquette Alumni Association, pairs one undergraduate or graduate student with a Marquette alum.
Student-alumni pairings are matched based on college, major and career of interest. There are mentors in 25 states and one in England.
“Students are really responsible for driving that relationship with their mentor and their responsible for setting goals with their mentor… the goals are really what the student wants to accomplish in partnership with their mentor,” Dan DeWeerdt, senior director of Marquette Mentors and Alumni Engagement, said.
DeWeerdt said that the course of the program is up to what the student wants out of it. Some goals students have set were to enhance their resume, increase networking or get into graduate school. Mentees sometimes have the opportunity to do a job shadow as well.
“My goals for the Marquette mentor program were to help start figuring out job applications … and how to find what I wanted in a hospital and a unit … another thing I wanted to do was a mock interview because I had never really done a professional interview before,” Lauren Neiheisel, a senior in the College of Nursing and current mentee, said.
Neihesel worked with a retired nurse and ended up getting a job in January She credits the mock interviews she did with her mentor as one of the reasons for her success.
“Working with her was super helpful because I was looking at hospitals in all different cities and I wanted a specific type of unit and to be in a nurse residency program which isn’t at all hospitals. She helped me be super selective and organize my thoughts,” Neihesel.
Following the job offer, Neihesel said she continued to talk with her mentor about different career paths after a few years in the industry. She ended up making a spreadsheet to keep track of all her thoughts and conversations she had with her mentor.
Kim Eck, a current mentor, has been with the program for almost the entirety of its lifespan. She’s wrapping up her eighth year as a Marquette mentor this spring.
“As a mentor my job is to help them achieve those goals and help the mentee feel as if they’ve really accomplished something and that they have something to take away from the program,” Eck said.
Eck has some experience working with foundations, so she said her mentees are primarily students with an interest working in the nonprofit world. She said she’s helped students get connected with organizations such as the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity.
For Eck, the key to being a good mentor is adjusting to the needs and wants of your mentee. She said that from the fall to the spring a student’s goals or career paths may change.
“It’s never a one-size-fits-all. .. realize that your path is not always going to be a linear path, things change … that’s what life is all about,” Eck said.
For interested students an informational lunch is being held in Zilber Hall 370 Wednesday, April 20, from noon to 1 p.m.
There will be a program overview and a panel of mentees and mentors to speak about the program. Students must register ahead of time using this link or they can email [email protected] for more information on how to get connected.
This story was written by Megan Woolard. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MeganWoolard4
