Four11 Mentors: Let’s Do This!
Remember when you were a student or young professional just starting out in the design industry? Did you have someone you could go to or depend on for good, solid advice? Someone who could of helped you craft that excellent portfolio and resume, who could of fostered your skills (personally and professionally), gave you that extra confidence you needed or even told you that you ‘suck’ when you needed to be put in your place.
We believe that a mentor experience is extremely important, even invaluable, to those students still in school and even those just getting out. And we know firsthand that there is a need in the NWI design community for a mentor program. We’ve done the first step in recognizing the need, we’ve even done the second step by having the will and now we need the help of the community to make the way.
Starting this fall, we are proud to be announce the first session of Four11 Mentors.
We’ve encountered a lot of questions, so here is a basic rundown of the program. Four11 Mentors is a one-on-one mentoring program that aims to connect students, in the last 2 years of a design program, or young professionals, who have just graduated from a design program, with seasoned professionals in the creative industry. The program will run on a semester basis, so the first program will run from approximately September through December. Once we pair a mentor with a mentee, it will be up to both of them to establish their relationship. We will require that each pair meet face-to-face 1-2 times during the program, because the face to face time is how the relationship develops. Besides the recommended 1-2 face-to-face meetings, we have no hard and fast ‘rules’ for the program, nor do we feel we need to. Every person is different, so all mentor/mentee relationships will be very different. As is true in life situations, it is all going to be based on how much they put into it and what they both want to get out of it.
Maybe you were lucky enough to have had a mentor or maybe you learned it all on your own. Either way, we see this as your chance to help our industry and make a difference in the lives of others.
We are excited about the future and can’t wait to hear from you!
Rock on!
Teresa and Ryan
Still have questions? Interested in getting involved?
Visit us @ www.four11mentors.com
Author Info: Teresa
Currently, I hold the position of Graphic/Web Designer at Golden Technologies, where I translate my passion for design into websites, while I learn to get a handle on crunching code. With a never-ending passion to create, I freelance under the alias TZesigns.
I graduated in 2003 with a B.A. in Advertising from Marquette University and had a yearning to use my visual communications talents. So I continued on with school and received a BFA in Visual Communications in 2006 from The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago.