Mentoring to Build a Relationship…

3/24/2015

…and a path to the future

Mount Mentors are a key component of the Oxley Program. Each year, students are paired with successful alumni, trustees, and friends of the College who help them to discover the connections between their academic work and their future professional life.

When Adam Derouin `15 was nominated for the program during his junior year, he didn’t think twice about applying. “I knew the goal of the program was to teach me about the professional world—how to go on interviews, how to network—and how to expand my horizons,” the aspiring television writer says. “It sounded like I’d be paired up with someone successful who could teach me a lot.”

Adam has learned more than he imagined he would. Paired with his mentor, John Caruso `82, senior vice president for sales at ABC, he has gained insights about the world of business, time management, and resolving interpersonal conflicts. “They are life skills,” Adam says, “and they’ve made me more confident.”

For Mr. Caruso, a 34-year veteran, mentoring is a way of giving something back to the Mount. He teaches his mentees about networking, making contacts, and building relationships. He helps them to define and explore career opportunities and points them toward experiences that expand their skills and opportunities. “They come to my office so they can see how an office functions, and how people conduct business conversations over the course of a day,” he says. “Sometimes they come into the City and we have dinner at a restaurant.”

When Adam applied for an internship at ABC, John gave him a much-needed boost in confidence: “John said, ‘Don’t psych yourself out; you’re capable of this.’ His words helped me believe in myself.”  Adam adds, “The more that I’m able to learn from someone like John, the more I can see that bigger aspirations are possible.”