Buckeye Pen Pals encourages mentorship through student-alumni partnerships

Alexandra Webb
Thu, 16 Dec 2021 02:52:52 +0000
Arts & Life, Instagram Page, News, advice, alumni, Alumni Association, arts, arts and life, assigned mentor, Buckeye Pen Pals, Buckeyes, clubs, Columbus, hobbies, letter writing, letters, life, local, mentee, mentors, mentorship, ohio state, ohio state university, osu, penpals, rachel zinram, student org, student-alumni council, student-run organization, students, tori meyes, writing

Buckeye Pen Pals, a student-run organization, hopes to match Ohio State students to potential mentors by connecting them to alumni, Tori Myers, a fourth-year in actuarial science and program coordinator for Buckeye Pen Pals, said. Credit: Courtesy of Rose Jordan and Andy Ostavitz

Finding a mentor may not be as difficult as it seems, as Ohio State’s Student-Alumni Council enters its sixth year of matching students up with alumni through Buckeye Pen Pals.

Buckeye Pen Pals is a student-run organization that gives current Ohio State students the option to connect with alumni by writing back and forth with an assigned mentor. Students are able to pair with alumni based on career paths, hobbies and even clubs that both the student and alumni share interest in, Tori Myers, a fourth-year in actuarial science and program coordinator for Buckeye Pen Pals, said.?

“It gives students a mentor to help build connections outside of the university, but it is also someone who is connected to the university, so they have kind of a shared identity,” Myers said. “It helps them gain more confidence as they go further into their professional development.”?

Rachel Zinram, a fourth-year in strategic communications and vice president of alumni outreach for the Student-Alumni Council, said the program can be whatever one wants or needs it to be, which makes it unique.?

“Everyone’s experience is going to be tailored to what they want, which is what I love about the program because it’s not going to be the same for everyone,” Zinram said.?

Those who signed up during the fall recruitment process can look forward to being assigned their pen pal some time in January 2022, before the spring semester starts, Zinram said.

“People will have a full semester with their pen pal, or they can honestly continue the relationship for as long as they want,” Zinram said. “There is no expiration date or timeline.”?

Zinram said her pen pal last year was Molly Ranz Calhoun, president and CEO of the Alumni Association. Zinram said she not only got to know Calhoun as a mentor, but also as an individual.

“It was really interesting getting to chat with her,” Zinram said. “It was a great networking opportunity, but I also got to know her as an individual, and we would talk about ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and we would email each other each week.”?

Zinram said she thinks it’s interesting to see how students utilize their pen pals differently depending on their year in school.

“Seniors and upperclassmen will sign up for more of that networking and professional development side of it, whereas it seems more of the underclassmen like to score a connection with an alum, like someone who loves the university so much that they decided to give their time to a student,” Zinram said.

Myers said Buckeye Pen Pals strives to show students that the Alumni Association is a resource that is always available to them.?

“All the Buckeye alum are throughout the globe, and they are always there to support,” Myers said. “In both ways, the alumni and the students are helping each other out, whether it’s mentorship or kind of reconnecting with the campus.”?

Although sign-ups for this year’s program have ended, Zinram said students can look forward to another application process opening up in the fall of 2022 and highly encourages students to join.

“It is one of those opportunities in life where the time and energy that you put into it is what you are going to get out of it,” Zinram said. “It really depends on you.”?