Southeast opens alumni mentoring program

There are 54 Southeast Missouri State University alumni in Alaska. Orange County in California is home to 116 alumni.

As the university grows, it is doing more to connect its expanding alumni base to students through a mentoring program. In the past, mentoring was a less formal program, said Shad Burner, director of Alumni Services.

"It's just one of those things that when the university was a smaller university with a smaller alumni base, you didn't need a formal program," he said. This semester, the university launched its One Minute Mentor program.

Burner and the campus Career Linkages office set up a process to match students with alumni for career advice. Alumni sign up and receive contact information a student. Burner said he has about 60 alumni mentors.

"We finally decided that now is the time with the economic conditions and students really struggling to find jobs," he said.

Kathryn Majeed-Ali, who graduated in 2000, is one of 1,698 alumni who live in Texas. A native of St. Louis, she recently helped a student secure a job there in hospitality management.

When talking to students about her job, she said, she tries to convey the realities, good and bad, of working in the industry.

"It's a lifestyle, and it takes a special kind of person," said Majeed-Ali, who works as an event planner for a hotel in Plano, Texas. The job has taken her to places across the country but also requires a 50-hour workweek.

She plans conferences, corporate functions and weddings. What sounds like a glamorous job can be hard work, she said.

And "at the same time, you're not attending the party," she said.

She connected with the student, e-mailed and talked on the phone. They prepped for his interview. She said she gave him pointers on how to read the body language of the interviewer. She looked over his resume and told him what type of work experience to highlight.

"It just reminds me of what I was like when I was out there," she said. "It's a great feeling when you get that first slice of independence."

Advice from people working in their fields sticks in students' minds better, said Joyce Hunter, experiential learning coordinator in the Career Linkages office. She helps students find internships and helped set up the mentor program.

"I think the key to it is to provide real-world advice," she said.

She said there was more of an implied demand among students for a mentoring program.

"I don't know that students would be able to articulate 'Gee, I need a mentor,'" she said.

Networking and finding job openings are also benefits to the program, she said.

Alumni can become mentors by filling out a form at www.iAMsoutheast.com/mentor.

abusch@semissourian.com

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