The Pace Athletics Department announced the beginning of the brand-new Athletics Mentoring Program as an initiative to connect current student-athletes with athletic alumni. This program expects to create opportunities for current Setters to have assistance navigating the educational and professional world with the aid and perspective of a former Pace athlete.

The new program is a branch off of the already existing Pace Alumni-Student Mentoring Program, which is an online platform for all existing students to connect with alumni. This newest addition to the program creates ease for athletes to find mentors that they feel they can truly relate to.

Life as a student-athlete can be stressful and overwhelming, so the connections that athletes make with alumni who have already struggled through the same circumstances can be stress-relieving.

Athletic Director Mark Brown recognizes how beneficial the program can be.

“We’ve done this informally in the past, where we would make these introductions when we thought they would be beneficial,” Brown said. “This is a more personable and definite way to illustrate that. We are trying to make a connection based on athletic participation.”

The program offers students an opportunity to garner advice, discover interesting career fields, and construct their professional network. At the same time, alumni can use this as an opportunity to give back to their alma mater in a meaningful way.

“It’s a really good way for our athletic alumni to give back to Pace and not have to write a check,” Brown said. “They can still participate and be helpful by practicing interviews with students, or whatever other assistance that athlete may need.”

In order to become a mentor, alumni must be prepared to meet people and expand their network, share unique insights to the professional world, and motivate someone who was once in the same position as them.

Athletes interested in finding a mentor through the Athletics Mentoring Program will expect to grow their network, explore workplace cultures, and navigate their respective field successfully.

Both mentors and students must be available to communicate regularly to have an effective relationship and attend most mentoring, networking, and career-building opportunities that will be facilitated in order to maintain the relationships between mentors and mentees.

“We’re excited about this,” Brown said. “They [athletes] don’t have to go to their parents for advice, they don’t have to go to their coaches for advice, but instead they can go to someone who was in their position as a student-athlete at Pace fifteen or twenty years ago, somebody who successfully navigated the whole system.”