Provost Jennifer Turpin greets a Mentor and a Mentee at last year’s Mentorship Program Networking Event.
Provost Jennifer Turpin has announced that the Mentorship Program — following a successful first year in the School of Arts and Sciences — has been expanded this year to include The School of Business and Professional Studies, as well as the Schools of Nursing and Law. A Mentorship Program Networking Event will take place on March 1st in McLaren Hall, which will kickoff this year’s program. Registration will begin at 5:30 PM with a 6:00 program start.
The Mentorship Program itself is actually a software-based form of social networking that allows Mentors and Mentees to create profiles, including career goals for Mentees, that are then analyzed by the system to provide Mentees with relevant and available Mentors. Only Mentees receive contacts, and they follow up at their own discretion.
Created by medical doctor and renowned software engineer Dr. Francis Kong — himself a USF grad — the software backbone (called Edge On College) makes it possible for Mentors and Mentees to communicate face-to-face, through telephone, email, or social networking, and now adds Skype capability to the basic profile so Mentor/Mentee partnerships can be pursued effectively regardless of the geographic distance separating partners.
Following the 5:30 PM registration, the 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM program will introduce all aspects of the program, the key lead participants, and will include a video-Skype demonstration, and a speed-networking event that will kick off with BPS Associate Dean Jennifer Camota Contreras demo-ing a range of networking skills, with “What-To-Do and What NOT-To-Do in networking activities.”
All current students, alums, faculty and staff are welcome and invited to attend. But, in any case, all are encouraged to join the Mentorship Program by filling out a profile.
