Center for Mentoring and Professional Networks
Center for Mentoring and Professional Networks
What the Center for Mentoring and Professional Networks Does For Students and Recent Grads
The Center for Mentoring and Professional Networks was established to work with every student to offer equitable access to Drew’s strong and committed alum network as well as community partners. Its goal is to ensure that every student has the tools to cultivate as broad a network of connections and as much social capital as possible by graduation. Why? Because networks unlock advice, insights, and social capital that are invaluable, and because research shows that up to 85% of jobs are found through personal or professional connections.
The opportunities for students and recent grads (0-2 years out) to build networks, include:
- Personalized one-to-one connections that may focus around career, identity, or even fundamental life management skills. These connections may be brief (flash mentoring) or long-term, depending on each person’s interest.
- In-person and virtual interactive programming, including informal programming to help students ease into networking in larger groups.
- Connections with mentors in students’ desired fields and/or areas of interest, including connections with relevant professional Drew alum networks (e.g., Business & Finance Network, Law Network, and others as they form).
- Access to Drew Connect—a powerful global online community of alums and students–where students can form critical connections at any time, day or night.
- Opportunities to connect with mentors around topics such as how to prepare for upcoming programs or opportunities, how to choose a major, what a day is like in a field of interest, real-world information about day-to-day life after college beyond work, and more.
- Access to job shadowing opportunites.
- A variety of other ways for students to engage with mentors based on their interests and where they are in their college experience.
- A “Student Alum Network” club to help plan and market programming & other opportunities for fellow students.
Students may complete this form so we know how to help — or you can just schedule an appointment with the director of the Center by joining or logging into Drew Connect and clicking on the Advising tab!
More about the Center
The Center for Mentoring and Professional Networks represents one of the pillars of Launch, Drew’s cutting-edge undergraduate experience that ensures that every student graduates experienced, skilled, and networked. The new Center emphasizes the centrality of networking and mentoring to the Drew experience for all students.
The Center supports the University’s mission to “prepare its students to flourish both personally and professionally” and graduate “ready to launch” by working with students to cultivate as expansive a network of mentors, purposeful connections, and real-world preparation as possible by supplementing the work of faculty and staff mentors through access to the world-wide network of Drew alums and community partners.
The Center's Mission
Our Guiding Principles
