Mentoring for success

Report: Shannon Lindsay
Photography: Neil Bennett and Greg Ford

Donating your time is a rewarding way to give back to the Monash community according to Karen Sutherland (BComn 1999) and Waco Tao (MMktg(LogMgt) 2006), two mentors currently participating in the University's Alumni Mentoring Program.

If you don't think you have time to become a mentor take a look at Karen and Waco's busy lives.

Karen, 33, is Monash University's Research Communications Manager, Deputy College Head of Howitt Hall at the University's Clayton campus, and is studying for a postgraduate diploma in arts research.

Waco, 46, is an entrepreneur, CEO of three companies: PowerHouse Homes, Models Inc and SCM Global, and father of two teenagers.

But both mentors believe giving time to others is important.

"One of the surest ways to achieve success in life is by helping others attain their own success," Waco (pictured top right) said.

The Alumni Mentoring Program was established to help provide direction to students as they move from study to a career. Mentors aim to encourage their mentee's creativity and self-awareness and assist them to acknowledge and work with their strengths and weaknesses. The mentor/mentee partnership runs for three months during the University's second semester.

Waco meets his mentee, a second-year Bachelor of Business student, about once a month and they're in regular email and phone contact.

Waco's aim is to provide "food for thought" from a "commando in the field" of business.

"Young people today have a lot more than we had 20 years ago in terms of material wealth, but what they sometimes lack is passion, determination, and a fine-tuned definition of purpose."

Karen is helping her mentee, a second-year Bachelor of Arts student who wants to be a foreign correspondent, fine tune his priorities.

"He has all these things that he wants to do. We wrote down his goals and steps for him to achieve them."

Waco believes a mentor can help make a student's pathway clearer and assist them to overcome obstacles.

"Mentors can help ensure that their mentee is ready for whatever career they decide to embark on," Waco said.

Mentors often say they gain just as much as their mentees. Karen says she's been taught patience and how to see things from a different, fresher perspective.

Waco says mentoring helps him to keep practising what he preaches and to take pleasure from helping someone else.

"The biggest kick I will get out of this program is to see the mentee succeed in some shape or form in his or her field and feel that I have perhaps helped them get there."

Monash University's Alumni Mentoring Program welcomes mentors with at least two years of industry experience and from across all faculty disciplines.

To express your interest in joining the program in 2011, email Kristina Vukusic or phone +61 3 9903 4143.