FIU Launches University-Wide Alumni Mentorship Program

Teresa Schuster/Staff Writer

The first university-wide mentorship program at FIU will officially launch during alumni week.

FIU Mentor, an online platform, aims to foster communication between students and alumni, according to Matthew Atkins, the program’s coordinator.

“In any field of discipline it helps to have advice from someone,” Atkins said. “Even if they want to ask for life advice they can. This person is a mentor for them for more than just their careers.”

Students will fill out an online profile, and the system will suggest potential mentors based on their career paths, organizational affiliations and shared interests.

Communication is designed to take place through the online platform, but in-person interactions are also encouraged according to Atkins, who believes that developing relationships with alumni is crucial to students’ success.

“Alumni could be able to hire them or refer them for another potential job,” he said. “[But] I think that students don’t reach out to our alumni early enough to build that relationship. This program is meant to facilitate that early on in a student’s life at FIU.”

The online character of the program also enables more mentors to participate, according to Atkins.

“We want to be sure that our alumni have the tools to help give back in ways that work for them,” he said. “We have alumni all over the country. We want them to be able to offer those jobs and internships and advice to our students [and] this is the best way.”

500 alumni have registered so far, a number Atkins predicts will double by the end of the year. He also expects at least 500 students to register.

“Ideally,” he said, “we want everybody. You’re a student for four years, but you’re an alum forever.”

Students and alumni can join the program at mentorship.fiu.edu.