A rising community of Trojan alumni works with USC Dornsife college students to arrange them for interviews, assist them make skilled connections, and supply useful teaching.
USC Dornsife alumnus and Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Justice Victor Wright (left) poses along with his mentor Will Chambers, a philosophy, politics and legislation pupil. Wright not too long ago took a bunch of USC college students on a tour of the courts. (Photograph: Courtesy of Laury DeSanctis.)
Shortly:
- Round 100 mentor-mentee pairs are at the moment participating within the mentoring program.
- College students are paired with alumni who work in industries the scholars wish to enter.
- The organizers encourage alumni who want to be mentors to contact them and assist develop this system.
In case you’re majoring in Cognitive Science at USC Dornsife Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences but additionally wish to break into the leisure trade, how do you get your foot within the door?
For junior Lauren Liang, the reply to that query got here by the brand new USC Dornsife Alumni Mentoring Program provided by USC Dornsife Profession Pathways in partnership with USC Dornsife Alumni Relations. The mentoring program matches every taking part pupil with an alum who works in an trade through which the scholar exhibits an curiosity.
Liang teamed up with Donegal “Donee” Chin, who graduated from USC Dornsife with a psychology diploma in 2019 and is now an agent intern within the model promoting division at Williams Morris Endeavor, a number one expertise company. For the previous semester, Chin has supplied Liang with profession recommendation, prompt which space of the trade she wish to enter, and coached her throughout internship interviews.
As Asian-American girls who each grew up in Southern California and studied in related fields, they’ve additionally discovered many issues in frequent past their profession objectives.
It is precisely the type of match this system’s founders had been hoping for after they launched a small pilot group of pairings for enterprise college students in 2020. This system was expanded to incorporate your complete faculty at first of the 2022 fall semester with roughly 100 at the moment taking part.
Matchmakers convey collectively alumni mentors and pupil mentees
Laury DeSanctis manages the mentoring program and processes pupil functions to search out simply the suitable mentor. “Generally I can discover somebody who works on the actual firm a pupil desires to work at. I name these my ‘golden matches,'” DeSanctis says proudly as she flips by a color-coded Excel spreadsheet she makes use of to trace her pairings.
Every mentee and mentor pair works collectively for 10 weeks, selecting from a listing of prompt actions, e.g. B. checking the scholar’s LinkedIn profile, discussing enterprise etiquette, or listening to a podcast collectively. Mentoring may be in individual or digital. (Chin is dialing in from New York Metropolis, for instance.)
Through the pilot program, a number of distant connections really met in individual. Mentees flew to satisfy with mentors throughout spring break, and a few mentors returned to campus for latest homecomings and met their college students.
This system is already producing the type of outcomes it wished to generate. “A pupil was curious about promoting. With the assistance of her mentor, she landed a coveted internship at BBDO, which is ideal if you wish to work in promoting,” says DeSanctis. “Her mentor had a connection on the market, helped her get the resume to the suitable individual and helped put together this pupil for a great interview presentation.
The alumni mentoring program is geared toward worldwide college students
Lawrence “Larry” Goodkind ’84 chairs the USC Dornsife Alumni Advisory Council Mentoring Committee, which advises and guides this system. Goodkind, who has levels in political science from USC Dornsife and broadcast journalism from USC Annenberg Faculty for Communication and Journalism, can also be a mentor. Each of his mentees had been worldwide college students and he believes that mentoring may be notably necessary for this demographic.
“I believe loads of mentees have a excessive degree of profession anxiousness at first. Whenever you embody the worldwide pupil background, you’ve gotten a complete completely different degree of tension. The best way we strategy issues right here in the US might not be the identical as how a pupil rising up overseas experiences issues. That is necessary, and you’ll assist as a mentor,” says Goodkind.
Lately, his present mentee spent a day on the places of work of Constancy Investments, the place Goodkind labored for 25 years. Familiarizing himself with workplace dynamics helped his mentor higher put together for getting into the US workforce.
Goodkind says it isn’t simply the mentees who profit from such relationships. “It seems like you may assist form the way forward for USC college students of their careers and of their lives,” he says.
Supreme Courtroom judges mentor college students
This system helps many mentors return a favor they acquired as a USC pupil. Victor Wright ’88, who at the moment advises Will Chambers in his philosophy, politics and legislation main, acquired an economics diploma from USC Dornsife and a broadcast journalism diploma from USC Annenberg. Wright is now a Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom decide and says a USC mentor helped him pursue a rewarding profession path.
“Considered one of my mentors is Jon Kotler, a professor of journalism at USC,” says Wright. “Jon and I are nonetheless in contact and are nonetheless near at the present time. He impressed me to pursue the career that led to my appointment as a decide. I wish to do the identical for Will and another USC college students I could have contact with.”
Wright not too long ago hosted a day in courtroom for Chambers and various different college students on this system curious about authorized careers. “I liked seeing the grins of the scholars who may placed on a gown, sit within the decide’s chair, maintain a gavel and take a photograph that would encourage a future profession,” says Wright.
Organizers of the mentoring program hope to extend the variety of pairings to 150 or extra in 2023. They’re at the moment on the lookout for extra mentors to enroll. alumni ought to fill out this system’s on-line type. College students wishing to take part ought to first be a part of the Trojan Community, then go to “Packages” and fill out the appliance for the mentoring program.