Life of a Mentee Part 1

Since 2002, the School of Communication has organized the Alumni-Student Mentoring Program. The program matches up students with mentors who work in the field that the students want to go into as soon as they graduate. The mentorship program allows students to have one on one access to someone working in their field to talk to about their resumes, internships and the industry itself. The program started out with only 34 matches, but this year’s program now has nearly 80 students and mentors involved, including me.

My name is Jordan Beane, I’m a senior here in the School of Communication, and after hearing about the program through the grapevine for the past few years, I’m very excited that I’m now a part of it. However, it wasn’t easy to get in. The application process was rigorous, as I had to include my resume, a biography, a writing sample, as well as a recommendation from an SOC faculty member.

Luckily I was accepted along with 75 other people. I was extremely excited to find out who my mentor is. My mentor is Joel Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Station Operations at WCBS, CBS’ New York City affiliate. While on the surface it didn’t seem to be the perfect match, as I read his biography I realized that he was perfect for me.

I plan on going into the field of sports broadcasting, the field that Joel came out of earlier in his career. In his past he produced the nationally syndicated George Michael’s Sports Machine, as well as covering four Olympics for NBC before he moved on to CBS.

As someone who’s graduating in a matter of months, the ability to talk to someone who’s done what I want to do will be an invaluable resource. Joel is going to be a big help, looking at the media package I’ll be sending out to potential employers, advice on the sports communication industry, and just someone out there who I know in the field.

Besides having Joel in my corner, I also have “unofficial” mentor at my current internship with the Washington Redskins. Josh Chernikoff, one of the anchors on Washington Redskins.com TV, who’s a member of the Alumni-Student Mentoring Committee plus a mentor himself, got me my internship with the ‘Skins. He’s been a great help to me at Redskins Park and the three days a week I spend there are awesome. Working with one of the best organizations in sports is an unreal experience, and I’ll talk about it more as my internship progresses.

The main reason I started this blog is so that people out there know what the SOC Alumni-Student Mentoring Program is all about. While I’ve been hearing about it for over three years now, I was shocked at the meeting at which we received our mentors to see so few undergrads there. It seems to me that this program has such value for SOC undergrads that someone should write about it so that people everywhere will see how it works. I hope this blog will be interesting and informative, and that both potential mentors and mentees will see what a difference it can make.