LCM Offers Mentors to Each Student

New Program Pairs Alumni with Current Students

November 15, 2017
LCM\'s Director of Career Counseling Ron Ansel explains the mentoring program to a student.

For the last five years, LCM has brought alumni in for November Career Dinners where current LCM students meet with successful alumni in more than 14 professional fields, ranging from medicine to accounting to healthcare administration. This year, LCM Dean Dr. Moshe Sokol explained, the program will be expanding. Each eligible LCM student will be paired up individually with alumni in their area of interest across the same 14 fields.

“There’s nothing like students speaking to alumni who know the system and learning from them how to pursue their career aspirations,” stated Dr. Sokol. “The program puts us at the cutting-edge of higher education in the United States.”

During a kick-off event at LCM on November 1, students learned about the details of the program. Students who have completed their second full semester at LCM and who manage a 3.0 GPA will be eligible for the mentorship. Close to 170 LCM alumni expressed interest in participating as mentors.

“The remarkable willingness of the alumni to come forward, demonstrates how connected our alumni are and how much they appreciate their past and what the institution has done for them,” Dr. Sokol explained.

Rabbi Aryeh Young, LCM’s Director of Alumni Relations, who reached out to many of the alumni, said that students will be paired up with a mentor based on career goals, personality and hashkafic views.

“Our alumni were incredibly enthusiastic about giving back,” said Rabbi Young. “We expect to find a perfect mentor for every student."

Mentorship sessions will occur twice a month, either in-person, by phone, or by video chat.

Ron Ansel, LCM’s Director of Career Counseling, said he had high hopes for the program.

“The goal is to have our students find out what it’s like to enter the working world and to have someone help them navigate through it,” said Ansel.

LCM student Isaac Tobias was excited about the possibilities. He said it could be a “leg-up” in his chosen field: finance.

“I need this kind of advice,” he said. “So much of finance is networking. I need to have the connections to get an internship.”

The idea of a mentor especially appealed to Matias Salama, a psychology major from Argentina.

“I want to figure out how to take advantage of my major and decide what I can do with my future,” said Salama. “Having a mentor is especially important for me since I’m unfamiliar with America’s mental health system.”

Student Avidan Yitzhak recently switched his major from finance to management and said he was planning on becoming a social worker. “I had an internship in real-estate and realized that it wasn’t for me,” said Yitzhak. “I’m excited to have a mentor since I want advice and guidance with my field and what career to choose since there are so many possibilities for social work.”

Though Dean Sokol did add there was a catch to the mentoring program: he hoped that current LCM students, once they are successfully employed, will come back to LCM as mentors.