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Scalable Mentorship�A Journey to a Sustainable Mentorship Ecosystem Through Collaboration, Technology, and Alumni Engagement

Jenny Moss ’06 (she/her) | Executive Director, Levett Career Center | Hanover College�Jeff Beavers (he/him) | VP, Business Development | 12twenty

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Where are we going today

Historic route: why a mentoring program?
From Los Angeles to Chicago

Point of destination (Design)
Planned route and unexpected detours (Launch)
Connecting with locals (Growth)
New infrastructure (Innovation and Technology)

Tales from the road

The journey ahead
Lessons learned

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Who’s traveling with us today and why

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The road of retention leads to sophomores

Second-to-third year retention was weakening
Retention predictors identified specific groups who were more at risk
Qualitative analysis offered additional opportunities to benchmark

In 2018, for the second year in a row, Hanover’s student retention was lower than the previous year. The first-to-second-year retention dropped 7%, but more alarmingly, the second-to-third-year retention dropped 6% from the first-year retention, and then another 10% from the second-to-third-year retention. We retained fewer low-income families and 21st Century Scholars – many of whom were first-generation. This was the first year’s recruitment under new leadership in Admission, as well as the first cohort under Hanover’s new test-optional policy. After several years of retaining BIPOC students, Hanover saw a decline – one factor was a vacancy of a Director of Multicultural Affairs, which we also had a difficult time attracting and recruiting to fill.

On a more positive note, students who declared their major earlier in their college career had a higher likelihood of retention, and career-readiness integrations with FY 101 paved the way for students to explore and connect with their post-graduation planning.

A narrative that was rinsed and repeated: students who left Hanover were more likely to transfer to a larger school or a community college, driven by a desire to be closer to home for family or friends.

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First destination: NACE19

NACE19 session on mentorship programs
Starting point: The Sophomore Slump
End point: The Comeback Year

NACE19: Creating a Mentorship Program That Increases Students’ Career Readiness and Graduation Outcomes

At this time, I wasn’t in the LCC’s driver’s seat. I was the Director of Internships, looking to connect some dots, and from the session, I took away an idea for a mentoring program to address the sophomore slump. College doesn’t feel “new” anymore; classes are more challenging, there's pressure from uncertainty, and you're contemplating “is it worth it?” and “there’s still time to _______.”

To shift gears, the idea of a mentoring program, designed to support sophomores, centered on the concept of “the comeback year.” Students have many interests in both academic and personal pursuits. An assumption exists that college students of this generation have “all the tools to figure it out.” But we’re all human, and no matter the generation, we are social beings. We want to feel some degree of connectedness, a sense of belonging and purpose, and a sense of assurance.

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Next Stop: Collaboration with Alumni Relations

Buying Fodor’s Travel book

Program design started in late summer 2019 for winter 2021 launch
Researched peer and aspirant institutions
Organized focus group conversations with students, faculty, staff, and alumni
Developed key performance indicators (KPI) that connected to the College’s mission statement and strategic plan

My first step was to build this program from the ground up WITH the Office of Alumni Relations. It was important for us to have an equal footing in this program from the start.

We gave ourselves a lot of time and left room for error. Collecting information is one thing, but processing, planning, organizing, and implementing all follow. What questions to ask on the information forms, building a website, arranging guest speakers for monthly workshops, and background checks for alumni mentors – aligning resources, people, and processes is a full-time job in itself.

At the center, we decided this program would connect students and alumni through a foundation in career exploration and professional development. Alumni would serve as resources and mentors, expanding the reach of the Levett Career Center and the Office of Alumni Relations.

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We’ve arrived at our destination

Formal program (structured yet flexible)

Long-term (as early as sophomore year through senior year)
Students and alumni align expectations through a mentorship agreement form
Scheduled events and training for both students and alumni, including orientation and one workshop per term
Supplemental off-campus opportunities

COACH at Work – student to visit mentors or other alumni at their workplace
COACH on Campus – students to visit or tour graduate school with mentors or other alumni

Students and alumni to revise, resubmit, or end their mentorship agreement at the end of each academic year

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Informal program (flash mentoring)

Short-term; à la carte style
Students and alumni opt-in
Mentee-to-mentor matched manually by program directors
Alumni can select preferred areas of mentorship
Alumni can choose to move between active and inactive status
Students can access various alumni for diverse mentoring purposes

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The travel book we bought…

The travel book we need…

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Alternative route

Held virtual call-out interest sessions for alumni
Partnered with Student Success to connect targeted student groups, including first-generation students and 21^st Century Scholars
Pivoted from in-person mentorship programs to virtual
Offered an informal program to all students
Revisited and adjusted KPIs

What we hypothesized from the start: alumni would sign up faster and in larger numbers than students. One obvious reason: alumni love talking about themselves, as they are the success story. They have overcome the challenges of the undergraduate college years, have checked off their first job, and perhaps are steady in their career, and have had time to reflect on “what I would have done differently.” We knew we needed to have a secondary on-campus partner to strategically and genuinely invite students to participate in this program – and why they need this program now.

Collaborations offer many things – and a devil’s advocate is one of them. Questions like, “Will we really turn away a first-year student who wants to connect with an alumni mentor?” It was in that singular question that paved the way to develop two options.

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We have arrived ON TIME at Point A:

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Speed bumps �ahead

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Visiting new towns and connecting with locals

Commercials in classrooms
Alumni-supported career-readiness assignments

Resume critique
Practice/informational interview
Classroom presenters
Micro-internship partners

Customized mentoring program for the pre-professional pathway programs

In terms of the product lifecycle, COACH began to lean out of the “growth” stage into the “maturity” stage. And we wanted to stay in the maturity stage for as long as possible. From the very beginning, the goal was to brand and embed the COACH program into the Hanover experience. Rather than expecting students and alumni to find us where we are, we went to them. Literally.

To consider a scalable mentoring program as an ecosystem, you need moving parts to work together. Any student-to-alumni mentoring program that does not involve faculty should be reconsidered. Faculty are on the frontlines with students – they spend more time with students than the Levett team; alumni have affection toward their former faculty, and their success is shared and celebrated by faculty. It was a no-brainer.

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Miles clocked

8 academic programs engaging alumni mentors in career-readiness assignments
Since Fall 2022, all first-year students have participated in a small group informational interview assignment with alumni mentors in FY 101
340 students have completed an informational interview since Winter 2022, and 85 students have completed a practice interview assignment through a curricular-embedded assignment since Fall 2024

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(Re)paving the way

Manually tracking data had become too cumbersome
The likelihood of human error or inaccuracies in reporting increased
Communication flow was laborious and inconsistent
The ability to properly assess the current state of the program was difficult

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New infrastructure with Technology

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We are heading to Point B:

Community

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Lessons learned

Start with Why
Find the helpers
Avoid falling into the “while we’re at it” trap
Technology can be a wonderful travel companion
Align objectives with short-term and long-term timelines
Enjoy the journey and share stories from the road

Start with Why – consider this your brick-and-mortar.

Find the helpers – maybe internal stakeholders, but helpers can also be colleagues from other institutions, professionals you meet at conferences, or a business partner who works for an employer with a professional mentoring program… no idea is original. It’s stolen and tweaked from others.

Avoid falling into the “while we’re at it” trap – just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should.” Focus on the why, KPIs, and scalability.

Technology – which comes first may look different for you. For us, it was program first and technology second. Be open and honest with sales reps, as they are “helpers” too.

Align objectives – work smarter, not harder.

Enjoy the journey – acknowledgment, recognition, and celebration tend to take a back seat to the higher education business of ROI. But this IS ROI. According to NACE, 81% of mentored students report stronger workforce readiness, and 75% of alumni are more likely to remain engaged with their alma mater long-term.

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Souvenirs for two travelers

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Thank you

Jenny Moss ‘06�Executive Director�Levett Career Center�Hanover College�mossj@hanover.edu

Jeff Beavers�Vice President, Business Development�12twenty�jeff.beavers@12twenty.com