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Mentorship & Transformation
One coffee can
reroute a life.
Every October, veteran graduates sit down with recent ones for a structured twenty minutes. Many of those conversations are still going, years later.
How it works
Three steps to a year of guidance.
Endowment gift → named scholarship
Thomas Nakagawa, ’89
Thomas named his foundation’s scholarship after the professor who once lent him textbook money. This year the fund welcomed its fourteenth first-generation scholar — a physics junior who, like Thomas, works weekends.
Directory search → referral hire
Lucía Fernández-Ramos, ’07
Lucía found her mentee through a single directory search for final-year robotics projects. Nineteen days after their mixer coffee, the student signed a full-time offer at Solarix — with Lucía’s team, by her own insistence.
One talk → forty mentors
Arjun Nambiar, ’15
Arjun came back to give a ten-minute mixer talk on what his degree owes the world. Forty students queued afterwards; he now mentors six of them, and his NGO hires two graduates a year.
Mentorship coffee → career pivot
Margaret Osei-Bonsu, ’94
Margaret’s mentee arrived with a scattered résumé and left with a plan. Two offers landed within six weeks — and this October, the former mentee returns as a mentor herself. That is the whole programme, in one circle.
Mentor questions
Asked every October.
How much time does mentoring take?
One twenty-minute coffee at the mixer, then one hour a month for a year. Most pairs talk longer — but the commitment is deliberately small.
Do I need to be senior to mentor?
No. Anyone three or more years out can mentor a student or recent graduate. The class of ’94 mentors the class of ’24 — that’s the whole ladder.
What if my match isn’t right?
Tell the coordinators before November and we’ll rematch you once, no questions asked. About one pairing in twelve needs it.