Arizona State University-Polytechnic issued the following announcement on Jan. 24.
ASU YP CoNext partnership accelerating LIFT commitments
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Reflecting on the words and works of Martin Luther King Jr. in the month that celebrates his life — and National Mentoring Month — members of Arizona State University’s multifaceted community continue to carry forward King’s servant-leadership legacy through service and mentorship.
YP CoNext@ASU is one such program that’s working to connect ASU students with mentors interested in helping them explore and achieve their professional goals. A community partnership between ASU and the Greater Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals (YP), YP CoNext@ASU leans into foundational pillars of leadership, life skills and community service in its aim to transition college students into high performing young professionals. Applying the innovative mentoring at scale approach developed at ASU to create a more expansive model of ASU’s virtual career assets, the YP CoNext@ASU program allows students access to help that is personalized to their interests, schedules and needs.
“Our members are professionals in a variety of industries, including physicians, engineers, lawyers, accountants, educators, entrepreneurs and elected officials,” said Ashlee Atkins, president of the Greater Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals. Atkins, who also serves in the role of diversity manager for ASU Enterprise Partners, says the partnership between YP CoNext and ASU was a natural fit when the collaboration began in the fall of 2020 when ASU President Michael Crow announced a list of 25 actions that became the LIFT (Listen, Invest, Facilitate, Teach) Initiative, designed to enhance the lived and learned experiences of Black students, faculty and staff at ASU.
Ashlee Atkins
“This partnership made sense,” Atkins said. “As we are developing our young professionals, we also wanted to develop the Black students who are coming up behind us as we were once in their shoes. We also know how valuable it is to have a mentor while transitioning from college into the workforce. A lot of us wish we had this program growing up.”
Kyle Grout, a junior studying business financial planning in ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, is one of the dozens of active student mentees taking part and making the most of the mentorship resources available through YP CoNext@ASU. The California native and Marine Corps veteran said he got involved in the program because he wanted to connect on campus with other like-minded students from diverse backgrounds like himself.
“I also found the opportunity to learn one-on-one from a mentor with experience in the corporate world and the perspective of a minority to be a valuable insight into my future career and possible situations I may find myself in,” Grout said. His mentor, Ray Gibson, an enrolled agent and tax accountant who recently opened his own tax and accounting firm, says mentoring has been a rewarding experience for him as well.
“Mentoring is important to me because it is a fair exchange between individuals that creates a bond that normally would not have been established,” Gibson said. “Training is most enjoyable because it offers a different perspective than my own. Everyone has a story. I was once in my mentee’s shoes. Listening, learning and setting the bar for myself and others motivates me as a mentor.”
Suma Hodge, another YP CoNext@ASU mentor and a professional counselor says mentoring is an important way to give back as “an older friend” and guide someone who may be navigating challenges and uncertainty in their personal and professional lives.
Original source can be found here.
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