The School of Education’s freshman class being welcomed to campus during orientation in August 2024.
The School of Education will celebrate Alumni Week 2025 in February by launching EdMentor Connect, a pilot student-alumni mentoring program. EdMentor Connect will pair current undergraduate students with alumni to foster professional growth, enhance career readiness and provide students with insight into their future professions.
The program’s launch begins with two online alumni panels on careers—on Feb. 19 and 20—and culminates with a networking event and kickoff reception on Feb.y 21 at 5 p.m. in Huntington Hall’s Sharon H. Jacquet ’72 Education Commons. The EdMentor Connect Student Interest Survey invites School of Education undergraduates to build a profile to make the best match with an alum.
EdMentor Connect was developed by student leaders in the Deans’ Undergraduate Advisory Panel, with help from Assistant Dean for Student Success Huey Hsiao and Career and Certification Counselor Lauren Gill and with support from Assistant Dean for Advancement Torin Washington and the School of Education Advisory Board.
“Everyone can benefit from a mentor, but those students who are in a teacher program and maybe realize they don’t want to only work in the classroom—and specifically our selected studies in education students—can learn about other real-world experiences,” says Gill, who will be the program’s point of contact and pair alumni with undergraduates. “A lot of students don’t realize the opportunities available for an education degree graduate, and our alumni have such a wide variety of backgrounds.”
“We have an extensive Orange network, and we help each other like a family,” says Hsiao, referring to the school’s more than 23,500 alumni, and especially Advisory Board members and School of Education Ambassadors, who have signed up to advise undergraduates. “Any and all students can benefit from EdMentor Connect, and mentors can offer students different perspectives on their futures.”
As she prepares to graduate, selected studies in education student Sofia DaCruz ’25, a member of the Undergraduate Advisory Panel, says she is “excited to connect with someone in the field for career advice.”
“As a senior, I think this program will be especially useful for students like me who are trying to figure out what they can do with the major after graduation,” DaCruz says.
Advisory Board Member Emily R. Ades ’89, P’21, P’23 says she is excited for the launch of the pilot program, ready to take on a mentee, and believes that mentoring programs can help students of any age.
Ades, currently director of The Kinnect Foundation, the nonprofit arm of fashion brand Kith, recalls how informal advisers have helped her throughout her career. “I started as an elementary school teacher had a mentor for nine years,” Ades says. “I then worked for the New York City Department of Education for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and found someone there, and for the past 12 years a mentor has helped me work in the nonprofit sector.”
Like Ades, Gill says mentors helped her early in her career. In fact, her host teacher from when she was a student teacher became her coach when she was hired into her placement school. “She stayed with me into my post-graduate life and shared teaching practices that I also used,” Gill says.
Madison Zeltzer ’25 contributed to this story.
