This past academic year, the Mount Allison Alumni Career Mentorship Program reached a new record: it provided mentors for 61 graduating students from a wide range of academic programs.

The mentorship program aims to match students with an alumni mentor who can provide them with valuable support during their final year of study, when they are faced with so many questions and decisions about their future. The right alumni connection can provide a sounding board, offer advice, and make introductions. Since the Alumni Career Mentorship Program started in 2015, students have consistently reported that meeting with a mentor has helped reduce their anxiety about the future and boost their confidence.

So much of this success depends on the quality of the mentee-mentor match. Carolle de Ste-Croix (’90), director of alumni engagement and giving, explains the kinds of characteristics she and her colleague Mona Estabrooks (’79), assistant director of alumni relations, look for when pairing students with mentors.

“We look for common interests and backgrounds. For instance, if we have a science student who wants to branch off into business, then we look for a mentor who did the same thing,” she says.

Finding the right combination of mentor traits takes time; the mentorship program team will spend much of the summer closely reading student applications and making matches for the coming year.

De Ste-Croix and Estabrooks also tap into their personal experience with the Mount Allison community and their gut instincts. Both alumni themselves, they have long-standing relationships with many of the mentors they invite to join the program.

“Most of the time Mona or I know both the student and the alumnus, so we know that pairing them together will just be magic, and that they will hit it off, and that both the mentee and mentor will have a rewarding experience,” de Ste-Croix says.

Justin Trueman (’18), who is about to graduate with a degree in biology, is one of the many students who has benefited from the highly personalized mentorship matching process. He describes his mentor, Beth MacDonald (’09), as “a perfect fit.”

“I was matched up with someone who has developed from a reassuring guide with experience in their field into a friend,” he says.

Abbie MacKenzie (’18), graduating from Commerce, also found her mentor, Jessica Madia (’06), very compatible and helpful.

“I really do not think that I could have picked a better mentor myself,” she says. “My mentor and I became very close, very quickly, and I learned so much from her because of this. She was able to help me both professionally and personally with some of the major challenges I faced in my last year of university. I would recommend the mentorship program to anyone. And maybe one day it will come full circle and I will be someone else’s mentor!”

The Alumni Career Mentorship Program is currently accepting applications for the 2018-19 program. The deadline is May 1.

Photo caption: Mount Allison alumni and students can connect through the Alumni Career Mentorship Program, run through the University's Alumni Engagement office.