June 2023

The Alumni Mentoring Program entered its tenth program cycle with the 2022-2023 school year. The program, started in 2014 by YanJie Hou ’06, transitioned to virtual meetings in 2020 and kept to the virtual format for the following two program cycles. For this school year, the Alumni Mentoring Program returned to its roots and had five of this year’s ten cohorts meet in person for the entirety of the 2022-2023 program cycle.

“The virtual program was amazing in so many ways,” says YanJie, “we were able to increase accessibility in an unprecedented way by having alumni mentors from all over the country and even one in Europe, participate and give advice to current students. We accepted a record number of students into the program in 2020-2021 because the virtual format eliminated constraints relating to physical capacity and costs. And more importantly, there was a real sense of unity and community as hundreds of alumni across all class years and geographical borders came together to help out the current generation of Stuy students.” But for all of its benefits, YanJie admits that there were some drawbacks that came with a purely virtual format.

Even though the virtual sessions were very accessible and convenient for both mentors and mentees, the experience is a bit lacking compared to in-person sessions. The structure of SHSAA’s Alumni Mentoring Program is optimized by a diversity of alumni backgrounds and experiences. Each mentor is paired with one to two mentees and each of these mentor/mentee groups are within a cohort of seven to ten other groups. Mentees spend a lot of time in small group discussions with their assigned mentor. But each of the mentee/mentor groups also come together during the cohort sessions to share their reflections and discussions with the larger cohort.

The rationale behind this blended structure for all the meetings is so that mentees are not just receiving attention from their assigned mentor but they can interact and hear from all the mentors in the cohort at key moments over the course of the program. YanJie observes, “Compared to past in-person sessions, we find that mentors and mentees find it challenging to be fully engaged during the Zoom group discussions. And the easy mingling that occurs between different mentors and mentees of a cohort when they meet in person does not come naturally, if at all, over Zoom.”

Mentees can also look forward to the in-person return of some workshops like Public Speaking and Life Skills. “In the Life Skills workshop, we actually do interactive modules where students can practice hand-shaking, group networking, and similar skills. We haven’t figured out how to duplicate those over Zoom yet,” YanJie jokes.

However, the virtual format has proven to be successful in other areas. “Zoom has been great for our Industry Panel Series since students can now hear from an even more diverse pool of alumni from different backgrounds and experiences outside of NYC,” says YanJie. Program Co-Director Bill Weiss ’80 has also praised the success of this year’s virtual Essay Editing Workshop in September as “the most effective one ever [due to its focus] on rising seniors who soon would be applying to college.” Bill continues, “the workshop ensured that several mentors would review each essay draft and then provide detailed feedback during a spirited, 20-minute, one-on-one session with each student. The students found it eye-opening to receive in-the-moment reactions and constructive comments. Months later, I still think of these amazing and beautiful essays, which included compelling and heartfelt stories, ranging from hobbies to personal challenges, each told in the writer’s authentic voice. ”

Wilson Mach ’23, one of the Student Leaders of the Program, participated in the virtual Essay Editing Workshop and found it really helpful. “A key part of the college essay process is that you’ll be writing essays for an unknown person and you have no idea how they might perceive your writing. The essay editing workshop was great in that I got a multitude of perspectives on how others feel about my essay. Through the workshop, I got advice on where I should add details and where I could cut back. This information was really helpful when I was working on subsequent drafts.”

You can read our other features on Mentoring here.