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Purpose 
The Mentor Program at SBE was launched in 1997 with the purpose of providing business students, both undergraduate and graduate, the opportunity to:

• experience meaningful and ongoing interaction with top executives.
• gain real-world insight from experienced and successful professionals.
• receive an insider's view of leading industries.
• expand perspectives on a range of career opportunities.
• establish a network of professional business contacts.
• develop confidence through leadership and personal initiative.
• Tomorrow's leaders need more than an academic education. They need to be able to test their ideas and learning against real-world situations, to benefit from the free exchange of ideas with people who lead by example. Only established business professionals with a pattern of success in their careers and a reputation for integrity are invited to participate in the Mentor Program.

Match
A Mentor/student match is established based on several criteria: career interest, faith commitment, leadership position, community obligations, time availability, geographic location, and, personal interests. For example, a business administration student with a passion for flying may be matched with the business operations director of a local airline. A marketing student with a love of opera may be matched with the marketing director of an opera company. Each match is carefully tailored to provide a unique and valuable Mentoring experience to both the student and Mentor.

Process
The Mentor Program is student-centered, which means simply that students are required and coached to take a leadership role in the Mentoring process. Once a Mentor/student match has been determined, both parties are notified, and personal profiles and contact information is provided to each. At this point, the student will

• initiate meeting arrangements.
• plan and present each meeting's agenda.
• when appropriate, conclude the Mentorship.
• evaluate the impact of participation on their personal and professional development.

Meetings
To develop the rapport needed to establish an effective Mentoring relationship, it is recommended that a Mentor and student

• meet three to five times, preferably once or twice a quarter for one academic year, which may include summer
• meet for 30 minutes to one hour, though the Mentor and student have flexibility in determining how to best fulfill this commitment.

A Mentor may meet with the student exclusively, thereby developing a stronger relationship. Or, a Mentor can serve in the capacity of "Lead Mentor," initially meeting one-on-one with the student, later arranging meetings with other individuals within the company who would each schedule a meeting.

Concluding
The Mentorship will conclude when both the student and the Mentor have determined that the goals and expectations have been met and concluding the Mentorship is appropriate. At that time both parties will be asked to complete a program evaluation. Some students may want to meet more than the recommended five times and many Mentoring relationships continue after the "formal" sessions have concluded.

For more information about SBE's Mentorship program, please contact

Mark Oppenlander, in the Center for Applied Learning (CAL) at (206) 281-2942 or marko@spu.edu