{"id":1148,"date":"2010-10-15T15:08:02","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T19:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2017-07-31T15:10:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T19:10:43","slug":"alumni-mentors-share-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2010\/10\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Mentors Share Expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mentoring\"<\/a>By the fall of junior year, Mary Vitale \u201911 was more than a little frustrated. The environmental engineering major had applied for numerous internships at consulting firms, only to end up in what she dubbed the \u201cthe human resources black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter John Helwig \u201904, MSE environmental engineering, project engineer with the water management consulting firm Hazen and Sawyer, and a volunteer mentor with the Society of Engineering Alumni\u2019s (SEA) new Mentoring Program. The two clicked immediately. \u201cJohn set up a game plan for me,\u201d explains Vitale, one of 15 Whiting School students who participated in the Mentoring Program\u2019s inaugural year. \u201cFirst we edited my resume, and he helped me pick classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was Helwig\u2019s networking savvy that made the biggest difference. He introduced Vitale to Hazen and Sawyer\u2019s Baltimore office, where she recently completed an internship. \u201cNow I know I want to pursue a consulting career,\u201d says Vitale, who aims to complete her MSE in 2012. \u201cMy mentoring experience and internship have given me an edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helwig, who frequently volunteers at SEA\u2019s career nights, has the interest and the empathy to be an effective mentor. \u201cI had been in Mary\u2019s spot, trying to build a career,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the networking opportunities afforded by SEA. It was dumb luck that I stumbled upon an internship in the first place. I certainly didn\u2019t want any Hopkins student to go through what I had to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

The match between alumni mentors and student mentees is key to the program\u2019s success, notes Jim Beauchamp \u201966, chair of the SEA\u2019s Career Mentoring Committee subcommittee for One-to-One Mentoring. (Jackie Akinpelu, PhD \u201980, chairs the Career Mentoring Committee.) \u201cWe spent a lot of time understanding what was important to students,\u201d Beauchamp says of the subcommittee\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Beauchamp ended up with three mentees: computer science students Brendan Ebers \u201912 and Robert Douglas \u201912, and Tom Smith \u201911, a double major in cognitive science and anthropology. They were a perfect fit for Beauchamp\u2019s experience as CEO and founder of Xxcelerate, a consulting firm specializing in early-stage tech companies. The three students are co-founders of Hopkins Buybacks, a company that resells textbooks using Web technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience was exhilarating for me because they were students passionate about applying an idea to a real business opportunity,\u201d Beauchamp explains of the numerous emails, phone calls, and meetings he has had with the budding businessmen. \u201cI was amazed by their extreme creativity and ability to quickly understand business. I find that in the entrepreneur world, that\u2019s the missing piece with technical people, but they were just magnets for knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Brenner, PhD \u201963, also gave his talent and time to developing the mentoring program. Founder of Brenner Executive Resources Inc. and author of Executive Coaching for Managerial Excellence (Authorhouse, 2007), he used his expertise to develop a notebook and guidelines for mentors. As mentor to biomedical engineering student Chris Mihalsky \u201910, Brenner offered insight into the job-hunting process and the consulting field.<\/p>\n

Brenner believes that every Hopkins engineering student needs to minor in career management. \u201cCurrent predictions show that today\u2019s college graduates will have 10 to 15 jobs and three careers over their lifetime,\u201d he notes. \u201cThe step from a university environment into the world of work is the biggest transition someone makes in their career. Hopkins students are bright, energetic, and high caliber, yet there is a huge amount they don\u2019t know about the career-building process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALUMNI PROFILE: John Helwig ’04 volunteers with the Society of Engineering Alumni’s (SEA) Mentoring Program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-currents","issue-fall-2010"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlumni Mentors Share Expertise - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2010\/10\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni Mentors Share Expertise - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ALUMNI PROFILE: John Helwig '04 volunteers with the Society of Engineering Alumni's (SEA) Mentoring Program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2010\/10\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-15T19:08:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-31T19:10:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/mentoring-300x219.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Alumni Mentors Share Expertise\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-15T19:08:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-31T19:10:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":575,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/mentoring-300x219.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Currents\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/alumni-mentors-share-expertise\\\/\",\"name\":\"Alumni Mentors Share Expertise - 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