Meet Your Mentor

One of the optional programs is the Alumni Mentor Program, which I signed up for. Basically, we complete an application (I had to complete it about 4 times because the computer kept having errors), alumni who are interested also complete an app, then our career center pairs us up. The ratio is currently 2 students to every mentor, so Denise and I were paired up with a gentleman named Kevin.

Let me just say that after meeting him this afternoon, I was glowing. He's worked for several interesting companies mostly in the food industry. A few years ago he bought a company, turned it around and sold it 5 years later for tidy profit. He enjoyed his first turnaround, so now he's Pres/COO for a family biz that's been around for 40 years. They package foods as well as have their own food line, so he spent the last couple of years streamlining operations (my past) and now he's focused on the strategic end (what I want to learn now). Part of this phase includes introducing a couple new product lines and he joked that he should just give me a product and see what I can do with it. Didn't take me half a second to say, "OK!"

Anyway, he talked about his several contacts, how he can help us get an internship that we want, assisting us in starting our first businesses, etc. However, what's most interesting to me right now is his knowledge - I just want to hear his stories and understand how he, specifically, decided to buy that first failing business a few years ago, risk his family's home and retirement $$ and just go for it. Fascinating.

In conclusion, I'm excited that I'm paired with this mentor and look forward to interacting with him more in the future. The End.