Canisius Begins Steps toward Alumni Mentorship Program

Andrew Nowel, Sports Layout Editor

As the calendar turns to October, Canisius announced a new and exciting addition to campus. The alumni mentorship program will begin its pilot phase as the goal of the program looks to help alumni give back to the campus community that helped them build to worldwide success. Led by Lauren Orlowski, the director of alumni and constituent engagement, the program brings a new level of excitement in connection with all groups to build student success.

From the beginning, the program was built as part of President Stoute’s “Answer the Call” strategic plan, created as a way to help the engagement of alumni at Canisius. Mike Yates, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students, commented, “the program is designed to provide opportunities for mentorship for our students.” He then talked about how the program will be designed to benefit not only students, but alumni as well. “A curricula that provides an intentional experience for alumni to have an understanding of how they can mentor and teach our young professionals in training as well as our students to see how they can connect with an alumni in their field,” said Yates.

The program is connected from the alumni engagement office to all different offices around campus that support the students. The goal is to have GriffConnect, Canisius’ online presence within the student community, be the main place where students can apply if they’re interested in the program. “Some of the features in GriffConnect allow us to serve as a mentorship matching and engagement platform so that alumni can schedule meetings with students and there’s places with resources where the experience can be captured,” said Yates– “One of the exciting things about the program is that we will be opening up the application in the coming days and we’ll begin the pilot phase.”

As it is only in the pilot phase, the program is only accepting ten students this year as a trial for future years – eventually the program's success will benefit the entire campus. Yates alongside Orlowski, Jenna Quinn, the graduate assistant for the SELD office, and AnneMarie Haumesser, the assistant vice president for advancement, are all working to bring the program throughout campus, utilizing the multitude of clubs and organizations that Canisius provides. “Learning on a college campus happens everywhere,” Yates said– “That is experiential learning, that is reflection, that is participation in a program, and that is interacting with a student with a conflict and trying to figure out how to mediate to resolution. All these experiences you get as part of your collegiate experience contribute to the overall education on a campus here because all these learning experiences happen everywhere on campus.”

With juniors and seniors winding down their college careers and looking at internships as well as jobs after graduation, the alumni mentorship program is aiming to help them connect within their fields. However, the program is not limited to upperclassmen as everyone is able to apply and find connections which will benefit them as they progress at Canisius. “You don’t necessarily have to be a junior or senior to start networking with alumni,” Yates said. “You don’t have to be near the end of your academic career to learn how to make a resume, what your characteristics are in a professional setting and how to interview. Those are the secrets that are hidden within the curricula of this program.”

Using the Jesuit background of Canisius, the program looks to help students “go set the world on fire” by creating social change rooted in the Ignatian way of Canisius University. By trying to give everyone an opportunity to be a part of the new program, Canisius aims for even higher engagement in connecting with alumni not only in Buffalo, but worldwide, especially with the Canisius campus welcoming in many students from around the world. “We’re a global campus, our alumni are across the world, and our students come from across the world,” said Yates. “We need to focus on not just what is here in Buffalo, but provide people those perspectives. The more we provide a more diverse and unique experience for everyone that gives them a connection and interaction from different worlds of upbringing and perspective in value set, that makes the program even more well-developed.”

The alumni mentorship program is ready to be launched at Canisius and all it needs is students who are willing to take the leap to help build their own professional experiences. The program is just one of the many ways Canisius works as a university to create leaders of the future.