May 2025 Monthly Digest

Lauren Ficker

Updated June 04, 2025 18:58

Great mentorship grows when it receives recognition. This month, we’re spotlighting meaningful ways to celebrate your participants—from personal thank-you's to institution-wide acknowledgments—because honoring their impact strengthens the entire mentoring community.

Champion Mentorship

A successful initiative celebrates mentorship and champions it at all levels and across silos at your institution. A culture of mentorship that is celebrated means that your leadership is aware of all mentorship opportunities, and even engages in promotion and celebration of participants. Mentorship is built on connection, and recognizing participants can go a long way in strengthening your program.

There are many ways you can make this happen at your institution:

Provide cross-functional leaders with talking points, flyers, or other promotional materials, like this Impact Report shared across the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.
Visit office meetings of leaders and explain the connection of your mentorship program to their goals. How can your initiative support the great work others are doing?
Refer participants to other offices for services, helping them access additional support while spreading mentorship awareness. Consider adding a custom resource to the Participant Dashboard!
Ensure leaders engage in regular promotional activities, such as posting on social media, nominating students for awards and recognition, or adding agenda items to staff meetings. The Chancellor of the University of North Carolina Greensboro shares short videos highlighting the importance of mentorship. Hear more about the strategies that have led to their strong culture of mentorship!
Encourage leaders to publicly share their own stories of mentorship, either for your program's recruitment purposes or to build general awareness of the benefits of mentorship. During orientation at the University of Rhode Island, deans share their stories with both incoming students and in 1:1 conversations with parents as they walk to and from different sessions.

🎉 ICYMI: Don't miss our latest webinar on celebrating mentorship! In this session, we shared stories from organizations that have made celebration a strategic part of their mentorship playbook. Check out the recording below! ⬇️

Show Appreciation

Mentorship is built on connection, and recognizing participants can go a long way in strengthening your program. Even with a limited budget, there are meaningful ways to show appreciation. Check out the ideas below for inspiration!

Link Celebrations to Career Readiness

Digital mentor badges, awards, or certificates are a great option, as they can be added to LinkedIn profiles, email signatures, or downloaded as PDFs for portfolios.
Offer course credit or co-curricular transcript notations for program participation. Check out this example from The University of Arizona.
Don’t forget the connection between mentorship and the NACE Career Readiness Competencies. Mentor Collective offers a rubric that highlights how mentoring supports these competencies. Consider rewarding mentors who demonstrate growth in these areas. One way to do this is by offering digital badges aligned to specific competencies, such as leadership or professionalism.
Ensure participants receive priority access to resume workshops, job fairs, or interview prep sessions.
Send mentors personalized recommendation letters or LinkedIn endorsements.
Offer exclusive networking events for participants—Saint Louis University invited alumni mentors to a Cardinals game!

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Connect with the Community

Invite alumni to speak about how mentorship shaped their careers. Host invite-only roundtables to reward current mentors and inspire mentees.
Swag from local restaurants, handwritten notes from leadership, or a small gift card can go a long way.
Collaborate with local businesses and organizations to host special events for participants—like a private networking hour, site visit, or speaker series.

Creative Celebrations

Think about what works for your audience. A cocktail hour for grad students, a campus BBQ for undergrads, or morning “Mentor Muffins” in the parking lot for commuters are all easy wins that show you care.
Branded items like T-shirts, notebooks, or water bottles are always a hit.
Post a slideshow or digital timeline that visually showcases the impact of your program across the year.
Host a mentor awards celebration!
Provide participants with special graduation stoles or cords.
Publicly acknowledge participants by name or share testimonials.

Recommended Resources

📖 Incentives & Rewards

🎥 Top Recruitment Strategies

📚 Recruitment Materials Library

🎥 Framework of a Culture of Mentorship

Upcoming Education

Ask The Expert: Matching
Survey Insights

Ask us your data questions at this small group session with our in-house data expert! This session will focus on the data you can gather from responses to your matching survey.

June 10

Beyond Giving Back: A Mutually Beneficial Approach to Alumni-Powered Student Mentorship

Learn how Alumni Affairs and Student Success offices can forge powerful partnerships, leveraging shared resources and insights to cultivate a thriving mentorship ecosystem.

June 16

Ask the Expert: Institution-
Provided Data

This session is a return to one of our most popular topics: we'll explore examples of how institution-provided data (IPD) can be used in tandem with your mentorship program data to drive impact.

June 17

MC Online
Partners Meet-Up

Join other partners at online institutions for a casual small group meet-up to discuss trends in online peer mentorship.

June 24