Scaling Student Success Through Invaluable Connections

Career Level: Basic-, intermediate-, and advanced-level career services and university relations and recruiting professionals
Competency: Organizing information, logistics, people, and processes toward desired outcomes
Fee: $49 (member); $69 (nonmember);

Summary
The University of Georgia, the birthplace of public higher education, launched the UGA Mentor Program, its first comprehensive mentorship initiative, in August 2019. The program provides students with an avenue to develop their personal and professional networks; explore professional goals, career interests, and workplace preferences; and help students gain an appreciation for mentoring as a personal and professional development tool.

Mentoring is critical for individuals, particularly within the early stages of their career development. eMentoring is an innovative concept where the mentoring between the protégé and mentor functions via online processes. Attendees will brainstorm innovative ideas and best practices to foster a culture of mentoring across their campus community that leads to greater student personal and professional achievement.

Particularly for those new to the profession, developing supportive, consultative peer connections is an essential piece of becoming a professional and of growing in the field. This is particularly important for students who are female, of racial or ethnic minorities, immigrants, or part of other disenfranchised groups. Numerous scholars have noted that alumni are increasingly key stakeholders and can potentially offer a wide variety of value to students’ employability. Join this session to listen to presenters discuss campus partnerships that have helped guide the creation of an inclusive program, and how they’ve developed educational programming to intentionally serve their minoritized populations. In addition, presenters will share the success stories of students and the impact that mentorship has had on their overall personal and professional success.

Following this program, you will be able to:
- Learn the benefits of mentorship in supporting student success personally and professionally through the lens of an eMentoring program;
- Understand how to design and scale an evidence-based, inclusive, eMentoring program by learning about one to two mentoring frameworks; and
- Identify one to two ways to incorporate continued learning activities for mentors and mentees to further mentoring relationship and student success; and
- Identify strategies to engage alumni mentors in career development programming and services to increase students’ career clarity and career connections.
Presenters

Jeremy Daniel PhD, Director, UGA Mentor Program, The University of Georgia – Mentor Program
Jeremy Daniel, Ph.D., is a civic-minded professional with more than 12 years of experience serving in the corporate sector and higher education. He is committed to cultivating relationships and forging alliances to innovate, incubate, and launch initiatives to better support students and elevate the institution and state of Georgia. He is an adaptable, forward-thinking scholar-practitioner with an appreciation for mentoring, innovation, community relations, career development, social equity, and philanthropy. Daniel enjoys learning about the world around him and interested in experiencing community in a close-up and personal way, finding ways to improve it and himself.

Destiny Loyd, Mentor Program Coordinator, The University of Georgia – Mentor Program
Destiny Loyd is dedicated to fostering self-empowerment in students and building mutually beneficial intergenerational partnerships. She is experienced in environmental policy and advocacy, event planning and programming, and student mentorship both in person and in an online environment. Loyd is committed to improving the lives of others and whole communities.