Working closely with the Development Office and in tandem with the MCR and JCR Presidents of Lincoln College, Oxford, Aluminati has launched an eMentoring scheme for the benefit of students at the 600 year-old college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe carefully devised online alumni portal focuses on creating real engagement from alumni by delivering services that are actually useful – answering “What’s in it for me?”, a question that so many other alumni portals fail to achieve,\u201d explains Aluminati Managing Director, Daniel Watts. Daniel continues: “Our eMentoring interface is especially designed to respect the busy lives of alumni who stay in full control of the number of mentees they can support as well as the types of mentoring interaction they offer.”<\/p>\n
JCR President, Bev Cousins, regards the launch as a major achievement for the college, creating a long overdue and valuable connection between alumni and current students. \u201cWorking with Daniel, who is so passionate about the project himself, meant that I quickly realised how eMentoring was going to work and the great many benefits it would bring to the College,\u201d says Bev.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already had feedback from alumni saying that they are willing to donate their time instead of, or even as well as, making financial gifts. eMentoring therefore seems the perfect way to make sure that Lincoln alumni feel that they are \u2018giving something back\u2019 to the College in an alternative, but equally valuable, way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also been told by current students that the central university careers service\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0always feel like it is \u2018theirs\u2019 and that a College-led project to help with access to careers has been something that they have long regarded as a definite gap in the services available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bev adds: \u201cIn my view, the eMentoring scheme is one of the College’s proudest achievements, giving career advice to students that very few would normally have access to. In an increasingly competitive job environment, it is critical to gain such valuable advice at an early stage in possible career paths, and then later on, help with applications.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aluminati has plans to launch similar eMentoring projects in conjunction with other institutions in the near future.<\/p>\n