Alumni Mentorship Program

Dear Alums!

Greetings! I am writing this to you as we begin our summer break. We have another great group of incoming students this year and our program continues to be something that we are extremely proud of.

A few years ago, I wrote and received a small APA CEMRRAT (Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training) graduate innovation grant and we piloted a project that you might find very interesting. We are looking to increase our resources to help guide students through the sometimes challenging process of becoming a competent practitioner. Given all of the academic, clinical training and professional development demands, graduate students today need extra support and guidance. As you may remember, the faculty here often find themselves wearing many different hats: Academic advisor, clinical supervisor, dissertation sponsor, course instructor, administrator, etc…

Since relationship competency is a must in the profession of psychology, I have attempted to work on enhancing relationships throughout our doctoral training program. Since your time here, we have breakfast meetings with the director, faculty research labs, a leadership council, faculty lunches/dinner and even a yearly alumni meet-up in the city!

Mentorship is a unique relational process that can assist everyone as they move towards achievement in their professional journey and I bet many of you developed mentorship relationships along the way. The CEMRRAT grant funded a pilot investigation of an alumni mentorship program. I have always believed that our amazing alums are an untapped resource for our students and I am writing you now to assess your interest in participating in the next year of this program. In the first year, we had 14 alumni volunteer mentors who were matched with 14 first- and second-year students who expressed a desire for additional mentoring. I have enclosed some of the alumni testimonials that capture their experiences. I think that everyone had an extremely positive experience with this mentorship relationship.

Once again, we are asking for any alums to let us know if they are interested in joining a mentor pool for the 2019-2020 academic year. Several of our alumni mentors were from out-of-town and they all indicated that Skype meetings worked just fine. So, please do not let distance be an obstacle to joining our program. Those indicating interest will be invited to a mentorship workshop at some point this semester. During that workshop interested alums will receive the mentorship program materials developed by APA specifically for this purpose. Although there are many professional organizations and even Divisions of APA that offer mentorship opportunities for students, there has yet to be an investigation of how alumni mentorship would better serve students in doctoral training programs. I strongly believe it just might be the BEST way to mentor students.

At the same time, we (my graduate students and I) will be surveying our first- and perhaps second-year students to see who might want a mentor and why (my ear to the ground tells me that this current generation of students are all strongly motivated to find a mentor as soon as they arrive at this new phase of their career development). Even so, we are suggesting that this be a purely voluntary process for them without any connection with the doctoral program (with the exception of this initial effort to put it all together and then figure out whether mentoring has made a difference for students and mentors alike). After that, I envision the mentee meeting with you a few times across the year…maybe at your office, maybe at a Starbucks or maybe at your vacation home in Antigua! (But then I will need to be invited!). As I said, Skype mentoring is just fine too!

So, at this time, please let me know if you are interested and what your thoughts are, you can email me directly (eva.feindler@liu.edu) and I can send you the actual program description. We will of course be collecting some kind of data so that we may evaluate this whole project. We will also work with a doodle calendar to determine the best date for the mentoring workshop – and if most interested alums are in the city, I will try to find a city venue for the workshop.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Eva Feindler, Ph.D.

Advisor, Alumni Mentorship Program

WHAT ALUMS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE ALUMNI MENTORING PROGRAM

From Bevin Campbell (graduated in May 2011):

“I've enjoyed participating so far. It has seemed to trigger a lot of self-reflection on my values as a clinician and my professional growth over the past few years. I'd encourage any alumni to participate.

From Christina Stango Hutchins (graduated in January 2012):

“Overall, a positive experience. Enjoyable to be reconnected with students and staff at Post. So far have met once per month for 2 months. Just starting and interested in seeing where this goes.”

From Amy Mack (graduated in May 2002):

“Having a mentee has been a wonderful way to see how the PsyD program has grown and evolved. It's been a great way for me to continue to be connected with the program. Being a mentor has helped me see my own professional growth and provides me with an opportunity to give back.”

From Anu Raj (graduated in September 2002):

“I've met my mentee once. I know I enjoyed meeting him. He discussed his goals and I told him of my experience. He told me in a recent email that he used my advice and seemed pleased with the outcome. I plan to remain in contact with him.”

From Jessie Suh (graduated in 2004)

“I have truly enjoyed meeting and working with my mentee. Our discussions range from managing graduate school work and personal life, to planning for a career in clinical psychology. I sense that my mentee also seeks the exposure to professional aspects of psychology- roles/tasks available to psychologists, etc. I also enjoy learning about what's happening in the doctoral program- a way for me to keep in touch.

We were able to "FaceTime" every 3-4 weeks, and we both preferred to use a weekend day to correspond. It worked out great (when my kids are taking naps)...”

From Gina Sita (graduated in 2012)

“I volunteered to be a mentor because I wanted to offer guidance and support to a future colleague. I liked the idea of providing a current student with an additional resource and active reminder that there is life after graduate school. Although our conversations are generally related to working in the field and experiences in the doctoral program, we often end up discussing larger life issues like balancing work and a personal life. The experience has been quite fulfilling for both parties. I find myself re-energized and reminded of the passion and excitement I had earlier in my studies.”