Good day,
It's been a while since I have given an update on the NIU Young Professionals Network. The purpose of today's note is twofold, one to remind you to register for the August NIU YPN event, and to ask you to mark your calendars for September 17th; we are cooking up a great event for you – more details coming soon. And two, I want to highlight a great opportunity for members of the NIU YPN to interact and give back to the College of Business this school year. Read on for details.
First, the August NIU YPN event will take place at the NIU Naperville campus on Thursday, August 20th starting at 6:30 p.m. The event will feature YPN member Steve Leazzo's coworker, Lisa Fiorenza from Plante & Moran, PLLC. She will talk about her experience building and adding value to her network. Then we will open the event up for a discussion about ways that you have been able to maintain and build your professional networks. I look forward to seeing as many members as possible at this event to hear Lisa and discuss this important topic for our careers. To register, sign up here: http://bit.ly/49LCJb
For more info about the August event, you can view the event flyer on our website: www.cob.niu.edu/ypn/ypnAUG09inviteNEW.pdf
Second, I'm very excited to talk about this item. As some of you may know, YPN member Josh Huseman has been diligently working on establishing a YPN mentoring program. Last spring Josh approached us with a mentoring program idea that we ran as a pilot program to support our goal of giving back to NIU. After the conclusion of the pilot program, Josh gathered feedback from participants and has come up with an improved program for 2009-2010.
Josh has been collaborating with Dr. Lynn Neeley at NIU's College of Business to define a beneficial mentoring program for her fall 2009, Management 437 – Entrepreneurship course. This course helps students gain a well-rounded understanding of how a business operates in the hopes that some day they will start or run their own business. These students are looking for insights from business professionals, like you, to help them in the classroom and as they prepare to graduate.
Josh and Dr. Neeley have worked hard to put this program together. Dr. Neeley's class has over 30 students that are in need of mentors. When I first heard about this program, I asked Josh, “Why should I become a mentor?” and “How do I get involved?”
The main benefits of the mentor program for NIU YPN members are:
The benefits for the students are:
There are a few requirements to consider before signing up as a mentor because we want to ensure that this program provides the highest level of value for you, the students and Dr. Neeley's class. We are asking that you make a commitment to this mentoring program.
YPN Mentors will commit to:
If you are interested in being a mentor for this program or you have any questions about the program or the NIU YPN, please email us at YPNAlumni@niu.edu.
I hope that everyone will seize this opportunity to get involved and to give back to NIU.
That's it for this update. We'll have more updates on the mentoring program as it gets started and we will be sending you more information about the September event soon.
Go Huskies!
Thank you,
Brian Gillet
President, NIU Young Professionals Network
