Coming Soon...the Sigma Nu Mentor Network
Updates from Lexington
At some point we’ve all been asked to identify those people we consider our mentors. It’s not a new concept and it certainly isn’t new within Sigma Nu. Every day our collegiate members benefit from the experience and wisdom of our alumni volunteers, whether they’re LEAD session facilitators, chapter advisors, house corporation officers, or visiting alumni. In a 2013 joint survey conducted by 13 leading fraternities (including Sigma Nu), collegiate and alumni brothers recognized the importance of fostering professional development and networking, and they believe alumni can play a major role in such efforts. With this information in mind, Sigma Nu Fraternity has committed additional resources to providing collegiate and alumni members with a medium to engage in on-demand professional development – the Sigma Nu Mentor Network.
The results from the 2013 survey are telling. Eighty-one percent of Sigma Nu’s collegiate respondents indicated a belief that alumni support through mentoring and advising was important and 76% believed alumni had a responsibility to facilitate professional networking. With all that Sigma Nu alumni and volunteers do to support the collegiate chapters, it might make one wonder what else could be done. In the same 2013 survey, though, alumni respondents also indicated a strong belief in the importance of alumni acting as mentors and advisors to support the professional development and career advancement of collegiate and young alumni members. More than half of all alumni respondents also indicated a willingness to provide such assistance to collegiate members and young alumni.
After conducting multiple rounds of testing throughout the spring of 2016, the Sigma Nu Mentor Network will launch this fall. Unlike traditional mentoring programs, the Sigma Nu Mentor Network will be a flash mentoring platform through which advice seekers –alumni or collegiate members – may choose to consult with a mentor any number of times, over any period of time, from anywhere in the world. Rather than locking users into the formal long-term, face-to-face mentor-mentee relationship, this platform will allow users to access the full breadth and depth of the network, should they choose to do so, regardless of their location. Consultation topics will also be flexible, though the primary focus of the platform is professional development.
Once launched, the Sigma Nu Mentor Network will be both intuitive and user-friendly. All users will be able to use their LinkedIn accounts to register on the platform. If they do not have a LinkedIn account, then manually registering will take only a few minutes. Once registered, use of the platform will be straightforward. In fact, the platform itself will have two primary purposes: 1) to serve as a searchable database for advice seekers to find potential mentor matches, and 2) to serve as the platform through which consultations will be arranged.
We all have mentors. We all have been, or will be, mentors at some point. The Sigma Nu Mentor Network will be the Fraternity’s global mentoring hub.