Belonging: a first-generation student at Elon

A first-generation law student at Elon wrote to alumni with a question many of us have felt but rarely say out loud: “It seems like everyone else has found their groups already. I feel sort of lost. How did you remind yourself that you belonged here?”

Five alumni wrote back. One remembered law school as a strange time, when people arrive from all over, at different ages, and everyone seems to have a plan except you. What helped was joining organizations and being willing to fail.

The alum also shared a small detail that turned into something big. A group of classmates parked in the same lot several blocks from school and kept walking in together. Small talk became friendship. One of those classmates later stood in the alum’s wedding, and another became the alum’s spouse.

The reply ended with the kind of encouragement every new student needs to hear: “You can’t ‘fail’ at it until you give up.” The alum also reminded her that she was someone worth knowing.

Confidence: a future engineer at Pitt

Feeling like you belong is one thing. Holding on to your confidence when others question it is another.

A senior electrical engineering student at Pitt felt sure of her skills. What wore on her were comments she’d heard during manufacturing co-ops suggesting women don’t belong in engineering. As she started her full-time job search, she asked alumni how to keep her confidence intact.

The alum who answered didn’t sugarcoat it. Impostor syndrome is real and hard. Keep learning, ask experienced engineers for advice, and remember that school is the foundation for a career of lifelong learning. The alum shared a story about deflecting one of those comments with humor, suggested that engineering design firms often have a more professional culture, and offered a simple reassurance: “You’ve earned [your] place.”

Careers: open doors at Cal State Northridge and Elon

Careers still matter, of course, and this is where a single answer can change someone’s path fast.

A Cal State Northridge graduate had spent nearly a year trying to break into professional baseball. A few promising contacts had fallen through, so he asked his alumni community for help and ended with three words: “Please send help.” Two Matadors answered, and both worked exactly where he wanted to go. One, at a talent agency, offered to pass his resume along for any role he applied to, which would guarantee him an interview. The other, a scout in Major League Baseball, reached out on LinkedIn to set up a call.

At Elon, a student asked about a documentary internship in Los Angeles. When the career center reached out with a few tips for sharpening the question, the student wrote back to say they’d already connected with two alumni and secured the internship.

From one conversation to thousands 

None of these students were assigned a mentor. Each one asked a single question, and alumni who had walked that path received it in their inbox. There was no app to download, no months of matching and no semester-long commitment. Alumni can reply in about 20 minutes, and many keep the conversation going with a call, a coffee or an introduction.

That simplicity is what turns moments like these into mentorship at scale, on one campus, across a country and around the world.

Across a campus

At Western Washington University, one person runs the alumni mentoring program in about an hour a week. In its first full year, students asked 336 questions, 681 alumni engaged, and 86% of questions received at least one answer, with 1.7 responses on average. Alumni volunteers rose to 509, up from 69 the year before.

Some of those volunteers were brand new. Jack, a math graduate who had never engaged with WWU, answered a student who was discouraged about internships. Not long after, he made his first gift to the university. Another WWU alum, an associate dental director, invited an Art Studio major exploring dental hygiene to come shadow at the clinic.

Elon saw the same energy from day one. Students asked 90 questions in the first 90 hours, and alumni sent in 499 profile updates in the first three months. At Duke, our first partner since 2018, schools such as Fuqua and Pratt run their own branded communities, so students are matched with alumni who share their academic path.

Across a country

Western Governors University is fully online, with nearly 200,000 students and more than 375,000 alumni across the United States. About four questions and six alumni responses arrive every day. One early question, written in Amazon’s internal shorthand, brought replies from five alumni at Amazon within a day.

Around the world

The London School of Economics connects a community spread across more than 150 countries. Its program draws more than 1,400 questions a year, and satisfaction among students and graduates is consistently above 90%. That is how an LSE student on a year abroad, hoping to become a barrister without a law degree, heard from a practicing barrister in Hong Kong within 24 hours.

Across all of our partners, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia (WWU webinar), more than 10 million alumni are ready to help (Protopia case studies).

Thank you, mentors

The Elon student asked how to belong. The Pitt engineer asked how to stay confident. A CSUN graduate asked for help. None of them asked for a mentor, yet every one of them found one.

To every alum who took a few minutes to reply, every student brave enough to ask, and every partner team making these connections possible: thank you. You’re proof that people still love showing up for each other, and we can’t wait to see how many more connections the year ahead brings.

Happy National Mentoring Day.

Want to see how our partners built their programs? Watch our conversations with Western Washington University, Elon University and Western Governors University.