University Mentoring: Creating An Association to Develop Student Careers
Abstract: As universities find themselves in an ever-more dynamic and competitive economy, they face several challenges: graduating their students and finding opportunities for their graduates. There appears to be a near universal failure by universities to graduate many of their enrolles. Even those who do graduate are not well prepared for the job market. In fact most universities don’t provide graduates much more than a job-placement office. The Citadel School of Business Administration brought to these circumstances a new initiative called The Citadel Mentors Association and now consists of 185 mentors and 224 students. This article seeks to provide a snapshot of an unfolding program over the period from 2001 to 2010, the challenges it faced, and the results to date. The authors know of no other program like this in the country with the scope and the focus of developing students for careers. It describes a dynamic process of adaptation, changing conditions in the pool of mentors and students, and challenging needs very much like what all organisations experience as they confront the difficulties and opportunities before them.
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Authors: W. Earl Walker, A. Bruce Strauch, Wesley M. Jones, Alicia Lopez Floyd
