The Levin College student mentoring program has expanded to cover all schools within the college, and its applications are now open. 

Traditionally, the mentoring program has heavily targeted students within the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs. This year, the program has grown to include students from the Department of Criminology and Sociology, School of Communication and School of Education and Counseling. 

The Center for Public and Nonprofit Management's mentoring program is suited for juniors, seniors and graduate students within these colleges.

“We are expanding through the college, for now, to see how that goes and how much interest we have from other colleges,” said Kat Hollo, assistant director for the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management. 

The mentoring program works to pair the applicants with a compatible professional in their desired field, and is broken down into two sections: monthly events and one-on-one meetings with mentors. 

It is a six-month commitment that runs from November through April. There will be one event each month, starting with a welcome meeting in November, that mentees will be highly encouraged to attend. 

“The events highlight the importance of networking and relationship building,” Hollo said. “Connections are such an important part (of school). Once you’re out of school, you need those connections.” 

Other mentoring events include one-on-one speed networking in January and a job fair in March. 

“The job fair will be smaller than your typical fair. It makes it easier to navigate,” Hollo said. “I think students feel a bit more comfortable at the mini job fair, it's not so overwhelming.”

The goal is for the “mini” job fair to encourage students to talk to businesses and agencies about job opportunities and internships. There have been times where students are hired on the spot, Hollo said.

The second part of the mentoring program requires mentees and mentors to meet separately, outside of the events, at least once a month. This allows for the students and their mentors to build a personal bond, beyond large group events.

Meetings with mentors range from a monthly phone call to in-person job shadowing. The rate at which meetings happen and what they include is up to the student and the mentor, Hollo explained. 

“We make (the program) very student-led,” Hollo said.

Applications for the mentoring program are currently open and will run through an extended deadline of Oct. 10, 2025. 

Student applications can be found at the Center of Public and Nonprofit Management page, and will require a series of steps before joining the program. 

Once the application is complete, students will complete a casual interview with Rob Ziol, director of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management, and Hollo. 

“(Interviewees) do not need to dress up and they do not need to come prepared. I just want them to be themselves,” Hollo said. “Rob and I like to get to know them. We also find out what they are like personally.”

The interview is crucial to pairing a student with their professional mentor.

“When Rob and I are pairing students, a lot of it is based on what they want to do with their career,” Hollo said. “But, it’s also based on their personality. We’re careful to pair up mentees and mentors based on career goals and personality fit .”

Students are given a selection of potential matches and allowed to do their own research about who will be the right fit. 

Hollo also explained that sometimes finding the perfect fit takes time. 

“There might be a little bit of delay between the interview and the match-up, but we always land the match-up.” Hollo said. 

Once students are paired with their mentor, they are able to start making those connections and the networking begins. 

“The biggest part about this is getting the chance to network,” Hollo said. “Our team finds it so valuable that we all participate in it ourselves.”

For questions or interest in the student mentoring program, please contact Kat Hollo, k.l.hollo@vikes.csuohio.edu, or call 216-681-3980.