Career Mentoring Program
Whitman students and alumni are invited to participate in the Career Mentoring Program, designed to foster meaningful connections between Whitman students and alumni. This program aims to support professional growth for students and ensure a successful transition into post-graduate life. By leveraging the diverse talents and experiences within Whitman’s alumni network, the program pairs students with experienced alumni for two months of personalized mentoring. Through targeted career development activities, participants will gain valuable insights and enhance their professional preparation, setting the stage for a robust and informed career launch.
“I found the career mentoring program helpful because I was able to meet with someone with a different career trajectory than what I had expected for myself, and talking with him about his career highlighted new goals that I will think about as I plan my future.”—Holly VanVoorhis 26’
What You'll Gain
- Learn from someone else’s experience and perspective.
- Build confidence and skills.
- Learn new ways to navigate barriers and challenges.
- Participate in personal and professional development.
- Build your professional network.
- Learn about great internship and job opportunities.
- Strengthen your connection to the Whitman community.
Time Commitment
- Participants are asked to commit to four, one-hour sessions, scheduled bi-weekly over a period of two months.
- Participants will also need to attend a one-hour orientation and are invited to join an end-of-program event.
- Career mentoring programs run twice per year, once in the fall and once in the spring.
How to Participate
- Register for Whitman Connect, Whitman’s student and alumni network. There, you’ll find all of our career mentoring programs as well as career resources, groups, and more! Students must register using their whitman.edu email address.
- Register for a program.
- Attend the orientation and review the program guidelines and code of conduct.
- Receive your match!
- Reach out to match to discuss the meeting schedule and meet your mentor/mentee!
Contact Us
For more information about career mentoring programs, please contact:
Jonathan Simons
Assistant Director for Career Mentoring Programs
simonsj@whitman.edu
FAQ's
While this often happens, we do not guarantee this, and take a variety of factors into consideration when making mentor/mentee pairings. Industry is one factor, however, we also consider things like communication styles, extracurricular involvement, skills, and more.
You are very welcome to discuss frequency and timing with your match! We encourage pairings to find the best system for them, but we ask that you meet a minimum of 4 times throughout the program.
Please reach out to Jonathan Simons, Assistant Director for Career Mentoring Programs if you are interested in changing your match.
We encourage you to do your best to attend the orientation to connect with other participants and ask questions, you will also have the option of viewing a recording.
While we do our best to ensure that each student and alumni receives a match, it depends on how many participants sign up and complete the registration and orientation process. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee it at this time.