January was National Mentoring Month, but there’s still time to make a difference. The ALSC Mentoring Program is in it’s third year of existence and it’s worth re-visiting what the program is all about.
In 2012, the ALSC Emerging Leaders team put together recommendations for a new mentoring program. The original intention was to pair early career professionals with experienced ALSC members. Since Fall 2013, ALSC has been matching mentors and mentees in an effort to make new connections in the profession and increase awareness of interest and familiarity with ALSC committee service and participation.
Mentors and mentees set their own goals and meet on their own time. Matches do a lot of different activities, including mock interviews, writing blog posts, and performing research.
What Does It Take To Be a Mentor?
One difficulty for the program has been in attracting as many mentors as mentees. The misconception is that it is easy to be a mentee, but hard to be a mentor. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
To combat this, the ALSC Membership Committee and Managing Children’s Services Committees have come up with three suggestions for why you should be a mentor:
- Being a mentor is giving back to the profession
- Mentoring requires only a few hours of time per month
- It can be as easy as having a 30-min conversation every two weeks
ALSC has also sought to increase communication about what happens in the program. Every year, ALSC hosts two mentoring forums – one in the fall, one in the spring – to bring matches together to talk about goals and obstacles. If you’re curious check out the recorded webcasts of these events to learn more.
Thank You Mentors and Mentees!
Another one of the new practices of the program is to recognize mentors and mentees for their participation. The following mentors and mentees were matched in Spring 2015. We thank them and wish them well in their future endeavors:
Spring 2015 Mentors
- Jordan Boaz
- Anne Clark
- Mary Cook
- Cheri Crow
- Carol Edwards
- Lucia Gonzalez
- Christie Hamm
- Carol Hopkins
- Abby Johnson
- Kendra Jones
- Julie Jurgens
- Rachel Keeler
- Laura Keonig
- Marybeth Kozikowski
- Mollie Lancaster
- Meghan Malone
- Angie Manfredi
- Allison Murphy
- Brooke Newberry
- Carol Phillips
- Marian Rafl
- Julie Ranelli
- Angela Reynolds
- Kristina Reynolds
- Katie Salo
- Brooke Sheets
- Robin Sofge
- Kelly Von Zee
- Marc Waldron
Spring 2015 Mentees
- Emily Aaronson
- Megan Ashley
- Carly Bastiansen
- Emily Bayci
- Jeannine Birkenfeld
- Amy Cantley
- Katie Carter
- Kathleen Dean
- Jessica Espejel
- Joie Formando
- Haley Frailey
- Rebecca Greer
- Pamela Groseclose
- Emily Heath
- Ajarie Holman
- Kimberly Iacucci
- Amanda Jachec
- Taylor Johnson
- Kristen Jones
- Naara Kean
- Kari Kunst
- Samantha Magee
- Kate Mahoney
- Kyra Nay
- Alison O’Brien
- Renee Perron
- Jessica Ralli
- Amy Steinbauer
- Mary Watring
How You Can Participate
Want to be a mentor or mentee? ALSC is now accepting applications for the Spring 2016 cohort. The deadline to apply is Friday, February 26, 2016.