The QUEST faculty and staff actively enable and encourage students to take advantage of our extensive alumni network, which includes over 1,500 alumni. Sometimes reaching out can seem daunting to students, but QUEST Corporate’s mentorship program helps. Entering its fourth year, this program pairs QUEST students with an alumni mentor working in a field that matches their career interests over the course of a semester.

Devers (left) and his mentor Dicken (right).

I talked to Jason Devers, a computer science major from Cohort 38, who had a great experience with the program last year. He found out about the program through some of his fellow cohort members who were also participating. Devers was connected to his mentor Andrew Dicken, a Software Engineer at Stripe from Cohort 23, after expressing interest in being a leader at a team-oriented tech company. Dicken initially helped Devers prepare for his summer internship at Microsoft, where Dicken had previously worked, but over time, they became good friends. Through many conversations, Devers was able to get advice on his career goals and what company he wanted to work for. He shared, “As what I was looking for in my career began to change, having a mentor like [Dicken] was very helpful in navigating these questions.”

For many who want to develop connections with and learn from alumni who were once students in our positions, this program is a great opportunity, as it offers current students a means to ask questions that might not be easy to get an answer to otherwise. While the program requires the mentorship pairs to check in at least 3 times during the semester, many pairings continue their relationships even after the semester ends.

The program runs in the spring semester, as pairings are made over winter break. Making great mentor/mentee pairs is done by QUEST assistant director Jessica Roffe, as she looks through the form that students fill out with information about industries of interest, companies of interest, dream jobs, and other various things. QUEST Corporate then reaches out to our alumni to confirm their interest and availability to participate. 

Abhinav Vedmala, also from Cohort 38, the co-lead of QUEST Corporate which oversees the mentorship program, shared, “This program is an amazing way to gain a mentor going forward, make a strong connection, and get practice building professional relationships.”

Students can sign up to get paired with a mentor by completing this form by Sunday, November 19th. As Vedmala suggests, “Finding a great mentor in the industry is hard. Building that relationship takes time, and it’s something you need to put yourself out there for. We encourage all QUESTees to sign up!”