“It’s a whole new world once you graduate from college,” notes Eveie Wilpon C’97, “and there are a lot of changes, not only career-wise but in personal development: how do you move, find an apartment, meet new people?” For Wilpon, who works in marketing and product-development for Bath and Body Works, having mentors to guide her through those transitions made all the difference.
Hoping to create a support system for other Penn students, she and a small group of graduates have started the Penn’s Women Mentoring Program. So far they have enlisted more than 250 alumnae around the country and abroad to be mentors.
The goal is to match volunteers with students, allowing them to form close relationships that may include dispensing career or apartment-hunting advice, talking about hobbies or books, and even sharing the name of a good dry cleaner in Manhattan. “I still haven’t found one,” says Wilpon, chair of the program.
About 85 students attended the group’s kick-off brunch on campus in February and began to be matched up with mentors. “We’re really gearing up for fall with a full-court press,” says Malkah Buchweitz W’96, vice chair of the group. “We plan to be involved in campus activity fairs. We’ll go to both women’s organizations and a broad range of other prominent campus groups to reach out to people to say, ‘This is who we are.’”
Buchweitz, who works as an associate in an entrepreneurial investment-management firm, got her first banking job through a sorority sister’s actual big sister, so she knows the importance of making connections. “This will be not only a great resource for students at Penn, but also a great resource for alumnae. Our ultimate goal, while having a mentoring program,” she explains, “is to build a strong alumnae network,” giving mentors opportunities to socialize and receive career support from each other.
The group is putting together its own Web site. Until then, for more information about the mentoring project, contact Wilpon at <emw75@yahoo.com> or Buchweitz at <mbuchweitz@hotmail.com>.