We had a great time last Monday at our Spring Speed Networking Event! Students and Alumni from both schools of the College came and networked and talked with potential mentors and mentees. Caroline Hipp came and spoke about her mentoring experience so far with MLIS student Matt Landau and refreshments were provided by Daylight Donuts in Lexington (Try them out sometime!) We will be matching everyone this week and sending out emails soon.  Here are some pictures from the event and more pictures are available here: http://www.sc.edu/cmcis/alumni/

We held the Alumni Society Mentoring Program Tea Monday night; it was a small but enthused crowd. We had the esteemed Jerry Bellune as our guest speaker, talking bout his experiences with mentors and as a mentor himself. Then Suzanne Shurtz and Matt Landau spoke about their experience so far as mentees in the program and Jacque Riley spoke about being a mentor to Alyssa Hasell. Dean Charles Bierbauer also spoke a few inspirational words. We all enjoyed the Black Forest Cake generously donated by Generations Bakery in the Boozer Shopping Center off of Broad River Rd. Check out the pictures below!  For more pictures, visit: http://www.sc.edu/cmcis/alumni

Who: Alumni and students of the College of Mass Communications & Information Studies who are participants in the Mentor Program sponsored by the CMCIS Alumni Society.

What: An informal gathering to reconnect with the mentors and students currently participating in the Mentor Program. We will showcase a couple of mentoring pairs that have been active this year.
There will be dessert and coffee served.

When: Monday, February 11th, 2008, 6:00p.m.-7:30p.m.

Where: The Vista Community Room, Suggs & Kelly Law Center, 500 Taylor St. Columbia, SC.

Why: To promote the Mentor Program with a fun and exciting event. To provide Mentor Program participants a time to meet in person and reconnect for the Spring semester.

Questions or concerns? Please contact Amanda Stone at astone@statelibrary.sc.gov.

Spring Speed Networking Event

Who: Alumni and students of the College of Mass Communications & Information Studies who are interested in joining the Mentor Program sponsored by the CMCIS Alumni Society.

What: A speed networking event lasting an hour and a half. Each participant will chat with a mentor or mentee for 5 – 8 minutes, speaking to six other participants.

Mentors will be paired with mentees and vice versa. Refreshments will be served and participants will have a chance to sign up for the Mentor Program and choose a mentor or mentee if desired.

When: Monday, February 4th, 2008, 6:00p.m.-7:30p.m.

Where: The Vista Community Room, Suggs & Kelly Law Center, 500 Taylor St. Columbia, SC

Why: To promote the Mentor Program with a fun and exciting event. This event allows the Alumni Society to showcase their new Mentor Program and sign up both alumni and students for the program.

Limited to 20 students and 20 alumni. All participants must sign up in advance.
RSVP to Amanda Stone at astone@statelibrary.sc.gov by January 31st

Here are a few pictures from our Fall Speed Networking event at the Vista Community Room in the Suggs & Kelly Law Center.  The rest may be seen on the Alumni Society website!

I hope everyone is enjoying communicating with their mentor or student. The Mentoring Committee is in the process of planning events: a Spring mentoring program to match more students and mentors and a program for current members to -reconnect-. Details will be available soon.

In the meantime, here are two videos from YouTube on the mentoring process.

This first video is Business mentor Ross Vickery, from Fix My Business Now explaining what to look for when selecting a business coach or business mentor. While this video has a business focus, most of the discussion applies to any field or profession.

This next video is for the Common Ties Mentorship Program from Upper Canada College. Pretty inspirational stuff :-)

Matching alumni mentors to students has been more challenging than expected, but we are almost ready to mail out the pairings.  One challenge was that student interests and chosen fields did not always match up with alumni degrees and experience. For instance, we had lots more broadcast journalism students than mentors. That said, I think we have a -great- set of participants. Every one of our alumni have great ideas, stories, advice, and more to share!

The promotion for the Mentoring Program, and specifically our Speed Networking event has begun! We have been to several events, both at USC and other professional organizations and have gotten great responses. We will be using this blog as a site for current information on the 07/08 CMCIS Mentoring Program and events.

The official notice for the Speed Mentoring Event:

Speed Networking Event

Who: Alumni and students of the College of Mass Communications & Information Studies who are interested in joining the Mentor Program sponsored by the CMCIS Alumni Society.

What: A speed networking event lasting an hour and a half. Each participant will chat with a mentor or mentee for 5 – 8 minutes, speaking to six other participants.

Mentors will be paired with mentees and vice versa. Refreshments will be served and participants will have a chance to sign up for the Mentor Program and choose a mentor or mentee if desired.

When: Monday, September 17th, 2007, 6:00p.m.-7:30p.m.

Where: The Vista Community Room, Suggs & Kelly Law Center, 500 Taylor St. Columbia, SC

Why: To promote the Mentor Program with a fun and exciting event. This event allows the Alumni Society to showcase their new Mentor Program and sign up both alumni and students for the program.

Limited to 20 students and 20 alumni. All participants must sign up in advance.
RSVP to Amanda Stone at astone@statelibrary.sc.gov by September 10th.

Here is a rough draft of the Mentoring Program Brochure to promote the program. We can send these to SLIS orientations in WV and VA and the ones in Columbia, put them in mail boxes for professors, put on the website, leave in the offices of both schools, etc.

Katherine, Elaine and I met 7/24 to discuss our upcoming speed mentor event and other Alumni Society events. We are working on getting volunteers, updating the manual and application, and publicizing the event. If you know of any professional organizations with lots of CMCIS alumni, we would love the chance to publicize the Mentor Program.

Elaine informed Katherine and me that we will have to change the event date as there is a conflict with 9/13. We are looking to reschedule for the 11th or 12th.

I have added a section to the manual here on conversation starters between mentors and mentees. As always, please add your comments and suggestions!