Career Services and Mentoring Opportunities

As a Ball State alumnus, you have a unique perspective and voice to share with our students. You’ve not only been in their shoes as a student, but can offer advice on the job search and post-graduation endeavors. The Cardinals Connect alumni-to-student mentoring program promotes fellowship and networking for career development purposes and can form open lines of communication and meaningful long-term relationships.

1. Log into www.cardinalsconnect.com using LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, Apple, or a username and password
2. Complete/update your registration profile. Be sure to select “Student Mentorship” under the “Offer Mentoring” option (please note: it can take up to three business days for our team to review applications)
3. Select which job function you’d like to be a mentor for (i.e. Education, Sales, Marketing, etc.)
4. Within your profile, you’ll have the opportunity to include a summary about yourself, your education path, and experience. The more you include in your profile the more information students have in their mentor search.

As a mentor, it’s important to set professional expectations through example with students. We encourage this by responding to your mentee in a timely manner, engage in frequent conversation via phone or email, be honest, trustworthy, professional and personal, and help students understand how to discuss transferable skills through NACE Career Readiness they can carry with them into the workforce. If you are mentoring through a department-specific program, like SOAR, you may be required to work with your mentees to set more formal guidelines and track milestones.

We encourage mentors and mentees to meet with students on a regular basis, but you can determine your own cadence. Research indicates that it is best practice to have the formal relationship last for a minimum of one academic year. If an academic year is not possible, a semester may also work as an alternative option. 30-minute mentors could be used for information gathering.

Throughout the year, mentees may message you to consider mentoring them at some capacity. You’ll have a chance to review their profile and accept/reject their request. Please make sure you have notifications sent to your email to ensure you receive the student’s request in a timely manner. We tell students to give you 2-3 days to respond to a request before moving on to another alum. Some students may be within a specific program, like SOAR in the Miller College of Business. Students will specify if they are with a specific department vs. reaching out organically.

You may mentor as many or as few students as you’d like. We do encourage you to keep your profile up to date in terms of how many students you’re open to mentoring and whether you’re available. Once your max number of mentees is reached, your "willing to help" button on your profile will go away.

Again, this will determine how many students you are able and willing to mentor. If you only have capacity for one student (which is completely acceptable), then your profile will update once that one student number is met. If your profile isn’t up to date, students may still reach out. You may then decide to take on the student or not.

Make sure your profile is updated with how many students you are or are not accepting and that should indicate to students whether or not they are allowed to message you. If you’ve reached your max number of students and are still receiving messages, please double check your profile settings.

We encourage you to complete your Cardinals Connect profile by including all relevant professional, academic, and volunteer experience. Making this information as specific as possible will help students identify you on a personal and professional level.

This is completely up to you and your mentees! You may mentor on a 1:1 basis, or if your mentees have similar interests and availability, you may do it in a group setting – either via Zoom, phone, or in-person.

If you are having technical difficulties, please select the “Info & Support” option on the left-hand main menu. You can search the technical support database for common issues or submit a ticket for assistance.

If you are participating in a specific program, please contact the program coordinator who recruited you to participate.

General inquiries can be sent to Sue Godfrey, Director of Alumni Engagement, Strategic Partnerships, Ball State University Foundation, at segodfrey@bsu.edu.