PROGRAM MANAGER

I was a Program Manager for the Building Networks Mentorship Program affiliated with the Foster School of Business Undergraduate Diversity Services (UDS). The program served as a part of the pipeline for students to be admitted into the Foster School of Business. We work with students at UW and potential transfer students looking to be a Foster student. The program focuses on developing the students professionally, connecting them with essential professionals in the business school, and supporting their projected path in college. This is the third year the program has operated, this year we had 30 mentees and 7 mentors. In my position, I serve as an administrator for the program; I completed all the background work such as interviewing and hiring of the mentors, selecting the mentees, building the basics of the program’s curriculum, collaborated with the UDS professional staff, and connected with the Building Networks professional partner, Accenture. In my role, I had a goal of creating an impactful and effective program that supported our stakeholders, the mentees and the mentors. I made sure everything ran smoothly and supported everyone and anyone throughout the program. This experience was truly valuable to me because I loved the mission of the program. I was in the mentee's shoes when I was a freshman and sophomore, so I wanted to pay it forward to support the mentees on their journey to the Foster School.

I was a Program Manager for the Building Networks Mentorship Program affiliated with the Foster School of Business Undergraduate Diversity Services (UDS). The program served as a part of the pipeline for students to be admitted into the Foster School of Business. We work with students at UW and potential transfer students looking to be a Foster student. The program focuses on developing the students professionally, connecting them with essential professionals in the business school, and supporting their projected path in college. This is the third year the program has operated, this year we had 30 mentees and 7 mentors. In my position, I serve as an administrator for the program; I completed all the background work such as interviewing and hiring of the mentors, selecting the mentees, building the basics of the program’s curriculum, collaborated with the UDS professional staff, and connected with the Building Networks professional partner, Accenture. In my role, I had a goal of creating an impactful and effective program that supported our stakeholders, the mentees and the mentors. I made sure everything ran smoothly and supported everyone and anyone throughout the program. This experience was truly valuable to me because I loved the mission of the program. I was in the mentee's shoes when I was a freshman and sophomore, so I wanted to pay it forward to support the mentees on their journey to the Foster School.

Research

For each session, it was essential for my role to support the mentor in the building of the session’s curriculum. To effectively educate our mentees, we had to collectively conduct a lot of research on each topic. For example, we had to lead the session on resumes. There are a lot of misleading resources regarding what a good resume looks like, so we had to shift through the resources to find the most accurate and reliable information. It was also essential for us to research content that best fit with our mentees and catered it to the needs of our mentees.

Receiving Feedback

After each session, we asked for feedback from our mentees. We wanted to progressively get feedback so we can continue to improve the program as each session ended and another one began the week after. It was important for us to set up the feedback system in a way that gave us productive feedback, rather than feedback that was only one or two words. We set up a survey that made it mandatory for our mentees to submit 100-150 regarding their thoughts on each session. After receiving the feedback, I would work with the other professional program manager and the mentors to see how we can improve based on what the mentees said.

Productive Relationships

As a Program Manager, I am in contact with a lot of stakeholders for this program. I am working with the UDS Program Manager, the 5 Accenture professionals, 7 mentors, and 30 mentees, as well as the other supporting UDS professional staff. Because I had my hands in so many pots and I had influence over all of them, I had to make sure I was creating productive relationships with them. It was awesome to be aware of the professionalism between all my relationships and know that I can reach out to any of them with ease. My goal in my role is to have productive relationships with my contacts, but make sure that I create a space that allows us to continue the relationship beyond the program.

Appropriate Interactions

Since I am in a role where I am interacting with professionals and students, I had to cater to each population. I wanted to make sure I remained professional when I interacted with the staff above me; I made sure I utilized correct email etiquette and professionally established myself. As for the mentors and mentees, I am still a student, like them, so I had to be professional but I understood that I could also be more casual in the way I talked to them. This role has taught me how to adapt to the way I interacted with everyone.

Mission

The most important aspect of my job is making sure every action we do and every word we say was aligned with our mission. Since this is the first year our program received sponsorship from a professional partner, we had to make sure we were careful with the way we were conducting the program. It was more important than ever to make sure that we were being effective with our program and we were optimizing the resources provided for us. In the end, it was a lot easier because the mission became a part of my passion so I was more motivated to ask the “why” in everything I did and easily adapted my actions to Building Network’s overall mission of supporting students in their journey to the Foster School of Business.

Providing Feedback

As a Program Manager, I have to work a lot with the mentors of the program. In this role, I occasionally act in a supervisory role, which means I have to connect with the mentors and give them pointers on how to productively complete their job responsibilities. If there are any concerns, I like to provide feedback to my mentors so they can explain their side and we can work together to formulate a plan for them to improve. This is very important in my job because I see the overarching big picture of the project, so I need to make sure the smaller pieces are also in-line in order to have a successful outcome.

Facilitation

In this role, I was in charge of the overall facilitation of each session within the program. I had to ensure we had a game plan for every mentor check-in and the actual Friday event itself. My role was to constantly think about the big picture, but also confirm every small detail is in its place. While this is tedious work facilitating each program session, I found that it gave me clear understanding of planning and the importance of being on top of every detail. Facilitation has taught me a lot about organization and being knowledgeable about all aspects of the program. It has encouraged me to keep track of not only myself, but also others around me. The most important thing I learned as a facilitator for the program is to remind everyone about the common goal of Building Networks and always encourage everyone to work towards it.

Functioning Independently

As a Program Manager for a program that is only 3 years old, I had a lot of leeway when it came to making decisions. After being a Mentor last year, I learned a lot from that experience to put into my Program Manager role. I learned from my past experience and learned from the mentors and mentees of the program. I became more and more confident as the weeks went on in my role, because I became familiar with what my role entails and how I can be as effective as I can be for my subordinates.

Personal Contributions

Being a Program Manager put me an interesting spot where I was put in a leadership position with my classmates as my subordinates. I wanted to ensure to everyone that my contributions to this program is only to make this program better and make their experience better. Through my past experiences and understanding of the program, I contributed a lot of my thoughts and opinions in order to make this program as great as it can be.

Responding to Ambiguity

In my role, I was given a lot of freedom from the UDS Program Manager, which often allowed room for a lot of ambiguity. In the end, I was able to work through a lot of ambiguous tasks and take initiative in the program. I gained a lot of confidence from following through on my own ideas of how to tackle unknown problems, and I learned how to navigate and ask for support when needed.

The program recently ended and I can say with 100% certainty that this has been one of the best experiences of my entire college career. Last year, I was a Mentor and did not care as much because I did not realize the bigger picture. This year, my Program Manager role has shown me the bigger picture and I became so passionate about it. I realized the impact I have in my role, the impact the mentors have, and the impact this program has. I realized that I want to carry that same drive in everything I do. I realized that I need to see the bigger picture to understand the impact my role has in any organization or in anything I do.