Mentor Guide

Thank you for volunteering to be a Foundation Mentor. The Foundation and Emeritus Trustee, faculty, and student response to this program has been terrific and exceeds early expectations.

The purpose of this guide is to provide details on the program and help you begin the process of establishing and maintaining a mentoring relationship.

What is a mentor?

The primary objective of the program is to provide students a valuable source of personal and career perspective and guidance that enhances what they receive from traditional sources such as parents, academic advisors, teachers, coaches and career services organizations. Mentors are not asked to be surrogates for any of these individuals or organizations.

One of the strengths of the program is that the extent of personal contact and interaction will evolve naturally and be determined by the mentor and the student to suit their individual interests and schedules.

As a group, we have a broad range of experiences, an expansive network of relationships, and great diversity of occupations, personal interests, networks and geography. As a mentor you will become an extraordinarily important link for a student between the undergraduate academic and personal experiences and challenges and the realities of post-academic life that follow. You will realize the personal gratification of making a big difference in a student's career and personal development.

We have a great applicant pool of students who could really benefit from this type of special and personal relationship.

Staying in touch

Once you have selected a student and the match has been made, all contacts and meetings will be worked out directly between you and the student at mutually convenient times and venues. The success of each relationship will largely depend on the mutual commitment of mentors and students to initiate contact and dialog and to get to know each other.

General guidelines for contact:

• Minimum of monthly communication between the mentor and student by e-mail, phone, etc.
• Personal contact a couple of times during the year - this could be during a mentor's trip to Charlottesville, a student trip to visit the mentor or some other convenient venue.

As this is a new program, we will learn what works best as we go along and your suggestions will be critical to making this a success.

This is an exciting opportunity for all of us - we want it to be a great success and work well for everyone. Thank you for your very important and thoughtful participation.