Shields School of Business to host Mentorship Day, Oct. 19

Shields+School+of+Business+to+host+Mentorship+Day%2C+Oct.+19

The Shields School of Business is introducing a new opportunity for students to meet with alumni called “Mentorship Day.”

The day-long event, scheduled for Oct. 19, will provide business students one-on-one time with recent alumni.

The event will include “Graduates Of the Last Decade and a Half” (GOLD.5). In addition to networking opportunities, current students can receive advice on areas such as professional development, resumes and interviews.

“Mentorship Day and the student-alumni mentorship program are for alums who can’t give back financially yet,” said John Miko, Associate Dean of the Shields School of Business. “Instead, they give back their time and talent.”

The day will include separate career sessions for accounting, economics, marketing, technology, finance and management majors. After speed-networking and a networking luncheon, students will be able to attend different sessions, including Women in Business and Branding Yourself Online.

The day also includes “Invest in Success,” a competition for student entrepreneurs to present their ideas to alums with the possibility of winning up to $2,000.

Thirty-five alumni will be returning to SFU from various places, including North Carolina, Washington D.C., and Virginia.

“It would have been nice to have something similar to this when I was in SFU,” said Bridget Flaherty, Class of ’09.

The Shields School of Business already supplies students with an alumni mentorship program that matches current juniors with alumni. This program provides students with a mentor in the workforce who can answer questions and possibly help them find a job.

Flaherty, now a senior auditor at UPMC, mentors in this program and will be attending Mentorship Day later this month.

“I think having the mentorship program is valuable for the insight into a given field,” Flaherty said.

Miko hopes that if Mentorship Day goes well, SFU might try something similar in the future campus-wide, giving students across all disciplines the prospect of getting advice from young alumni in their fields of choice.

“A day like this can focus on exposing undergrads to alumni,” Miko said.