Every year, the University of North Dakota Department of Communication offers a special opportunity for students to gain valuable insight into their prospective career fields via the Alumni Mentorship Program. This program, developed in conjunction with the Department’s annual Communication Appreciation Day event, is meant to connect participants with alumni who have careers in students’ specified fields of interest, ranging from advertising and public relations to sports communication and graphic design.
“My role is coordinating the mentorships,” Dr. Joonghwa Lee, an Associate Professor and Internship Coordinator for the Department of Communication, said. “So, I collect data from alumni [on] what kind of area they are interested in, or based on their career, what their expertise is, and I also collect data from students, what area they are interested in.”
The results of Lee’s efforts as Mentorship Coordinator are partnerships between experienced, knowledgeable alumni and students eager to learn what a successful person in their desired profession really looks like.
The program was first conceptualized in 2021 after Mary Vaughan, a student intern working under Dr. Lee, inquired about the Department’s lack of a proper mentorship program. Dr. Lee then brought the matter to the attention of Dr. Jeffrey Weatherly, Department Chair and Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the time. Four years after the idea was first hatched, the program has proven to be a considerable success, especially in terms of attracting potential alumni mentors.
“In general, we have more alumni who want to be mentors than student participants,” Dr. Lee said. “Usually, we have about 100 to 150 alumni who want to be a mentor for our students.”
“My mentor was like the exact same person as me, it felt like, so it was just a really easygoing relationship,” Kiera Musil, a sophomore majoring in Communication with aspirations of working in social media and advertising, said.
Musil’s status as an uncertain freshman at the time of her mentorship made the guidance she received all the more valuable.
“There was somebody in my corner, and that’s what I liked,” Musil said. “[My mentor] had been where I was however many years ago, and she has a great career. So, seeing her excel in an area I want to go into was really beneficial. It helped me picture where I was headed.”
Musil is confident she will be taking part in the program again this year; that yearly participation, Dr. Lee believes, is where students can begin to see serious benefits.
“If [students] attend the program annually, when they graduate, they have a list of two or three or four industry mentors,” Lee said. “In some cases, those mentors offer some internship opportunity.”
Despite the potentially immense benefits of participating in the Alumni Mentorship Program, Dr. Lee is adamant that the process of signing up is so simple that there is no reason not to do it.
“I’ve found that [students] think there is some sort of qualification, time commitment, or some assignment. No, we don’t have that barrier,” Lee said. “Even the survey takes less than five minutes. Just sign up.”
Those interested in participating in the Alumni Mentorship Program can access the registration survey at https://bit.ly/2025Comm Alumni Mentorship. Applications close Friday, Feb. 15.
Quinn Berg is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at quinn.berg@und.edu.
