AMPlify, St. Michael’s alumni mentorship program, joined Career Week to provide mentorship opportunities as part of a week designed to help students as they transition from academia into the workforce.

Career Week took place on campus and virtually from January 27 – 31. The lineup included workshops on networking, connecting your university experience to your future career and the imposter phenomenon. As part of Career Week, St. Mike’s alumni who are industry professionals were able to offer students guidance through a virtual resume clinic and a speed networking.

The speed networking event took place on January 29 in Charbonnel Lounge. The evening began with refreshments and a chance for students and mentees to break the ice by lamenting over commutes and coursework. For the formal networking portion, students sat at a long table facing the mentors and after a set time students would move down the table. This format allowed students to talk with multiple alumni in quick, timed sessions.

“I’ve attended a lot of networking events through Rotman, but never speed networking. I’m guessing it will be like speed dating, but networking, and that sounds fun,” says Vidhi Jhawar, a fourth-year student studying finance.

“I want to get an alumni perspective and see where they’re at in their life currently. I’m trying to see if I can talk with anyone on a similar path to what I’m looking for,” says Doyin Adeoye, a fourth-year student currently on a coop placement.

“I’ve done a lot of front-line volunteering, and I wanted to do something new along the lines of mentorship. I felt I was at a stage in my life where I could start mentoring other people and then St. Mike’s emailed me about this program and I thought it was the perfect match,” says Marcus Garrison, who works in technology sales. “We didn’t have events like this when I was at school in the 80’s. We had career centres, and that was about it. All professors could say was, ‘Go to grad school.’ I think it’s good to tell a student proactively what they can expect so they can prepare and have a realistic view,” he says.

“Our firm is very big on mentors because we want people to rise up through the ranks. It’s very disorienting for university students to make the switch of coming into a big firm,” says Robert Bodnar, who worked at Morgan Stanley in New York for 35 years. “I wouldn’t be where I am now without my education at St. Mike’s and so now, I try to come out and help where I can.”

“I’m curious about how to switch from an internship to a real paid job to ultimately finding your career path,” says Megan Panicker, a fourth-year student studying health and disease and looking to go into the public sector after graduation.

In turn, Matthew Ziembicki who has built a career working in government after studying public health, thinks the best advice he can offer is to find a paid co-op.

Nicholas Fleming is a St. Mike’s alumnus who graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto in 2019 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa in 2022. Nicholas is now a medical malpractice lawyer who represents patients and their families in claims against doctors, nurses and hospitals.

After finishing law school and returning to the Greater Toronto Area, I wanted to re-engage with the St. Mike’s community as an alumnus. St. Mike’s was my home as an undergraduate and is a place where I formed lasting relationships and added to the foundation of who I am today. As an alumnus, I wanted to give back to the community that had given so much to me as a student. So, when I saw that St. Mike’s was launching a new mentorship program called “AMPlify” in 2023, I jumped at the opportunity to join as a mentor.

AMPlify is a new program exclusive to St. Mike’s which allows upper-year undergraduate students to connect with alumni mentors to learn about the various career paths that exist after graduation. Students have access to a directory of mentors they can reach out to and request to meet virtually or in person for a quick discussion. What follows is up to each mentor and mentee: it could be a one-time meeting or the start of a more traditional mentorship relationship. Beyond the directory, the program also organizes several on-campus networking events for students and alumni to intermingle. It is a new mentoring approach that aims to give SMC students access to the incredibly talented and diverse St. Mike’s alumni community.

As a mentor, I had the opportunity to speak to students at several on-campus networking events and on one-on-one Zoom calls. I was able to share my experiences transitioning from science to law and the day-to-day expectations of law students with current St. Mike’s students who are interested in exploring careers in law. The program also allowed me to reconnect with the St. Mike’s community and campus, and I have met (and re-met) many fellow alumni. Being a mentor has been an incredibly rewarding experience and has allowed me to re-engage with the college and give back to this special community.

Having recently concluded its inaugural year, AMPlify is now back for its second year looking to build on the success of its first. For more information about the program and to enroll as a mentor, explore the AMPlify website here.

For any alumni reading this and wondering if they should get involved, I would recommend it without hesitation. The program allows you to get involved and give back in a way that allows you to make a real difference to current students while also controlling the time commitment.

I hope to see you at a networking event soon!

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Joshya Singh is a third-year student pursuing a specialist in Pathobiology (LMP), a major in Physiology, and a minor in Bioethics. She is the Co-Coodinator of the St. Mike’s Mentorship Program, a part of the Research Opportunities Program, and has been a mentor and a leader in the Orientation team in the past. 

Andrea Taylor is a fourth-year student specializing in Health and Disease and minoring in Physiology and Immunology. She serves as Co-Coordinator of the St. Mike’s Mentorship Program, Copy Editor of The Mike Newspaper, and as Secretary for the U of T Mental Health Association, which is a program focused on promoting awareness on mental wellbeing.

Going Strong, Together: The St. Mike’s Mentorship Program

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” — Steven Spielberg

Mentorship is synonymous with support and togetherness. It’s a human endeavour through which a mentor provides direction and advice, shares their foresight, and is willing to advocate for their mentee’s dreams and aspirations. It’s a relationship that shares mutual trust, understanding, and respect. It’s a space where both individuals can express what they know—and also the things they don’t. Most importantly, it’s a promise that a mentor makes to their mentee—to provide not a quick-fix to all problems but to be there while the mentee learns and grows capable of discovering solutions themselves.

This philosophy has been the very inspiration that laid the foundation of the St. Mike’s Mentorship Program. This year, our team consists of two coordinators, eight senior mentors, and 43 mentors—with every individual committed to be there for all 233 mentees in the Program.

Each mentor is responsible for communicating with five to six mentees, either through weekly correspondence, monthly meetings, or simply when their mentee has questions. Our team of mentors take pride in their mentees’ hard work and achievements which have brought them to the University of Toronto and to St. Mike’s. They are also prepared to support them in their journeys ahead. Mentors have been equipped with invaluable skill sets learnt through a 7-week period of comprehensive training. During this time, Mentors have been instructed on topics relating to precise resource provision, confidentiality, boundaries, effective communication strategies, mental health, principles of equity, netiquette, and accessibility.

They are also supported in their pursuit by our wonderful senior mentors, who not only supervise their own team of mentors but also work collaboratively on five important portfolios, including Event Management, Professional Development, Mentor-Mentee Relations, Media Promotions, and Team Development.

The St. Mike’s Mentorship team is not only committed toward providing guidance to its mentees but also aims to conduct a series of workshops and events to enable professional, academic, social, and personal growth. Our upcoming Professional Development workshops are focused on accessing university-sanctioned resources; we aim to host guest speakers from a variety of departments and specialities, such as: mental health counselling, academic success, health and wellness, and college tutoring services. These workshops are designed to provide first-years with a toolkit of academic and professional skills essential for success at university. They are intended to educate students of diverse career paths, internship and research opportunities while also connecting them to the staff and alumni network here at St. Mike’s. In addition, they will go into detail on how to navigate platforms such as the Career Learning Network and the technical aspects of applying to various Programs of Study.

Our Professional Development workshops are beautifully complemented with numerous spirited events meant for social interaction, personal well-being, and advocacy. Our team hopes to come together and celebrate the student body at our college, whether it’s through a culture festival at St. Mike’s, a mindfulness and yoga session, or an outdoor movie night. We also hope to advocate for equity and inclusivity through initiatives such as the Program Thanksgiving food drive, the promotion of innovative start-ups, and tributes to individuals who stood for their rights in society.

Ultimately, we hope to provide a space where students can learn from one another and from the experiences they have as a part of the Program. For our team, this translates to skills like teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and judicious decision-making. For our mentees, this is a great opportunity to reflect and become more self-aware, collaborate with peers, and gain valuable relationships along the way. For us, we hope it continues to be a source of growth in leadership, kindness, and mutual encouragement.

More than anything, the Program’s course so far has given us confidence that our team’s dedication will help mentees discover who they are, and who they want to be in the next four years of their undergraduate experience—ultimately paving way to a wonderful year of mentorship—full of support and togetherness.

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Nick Pantaleo, FCPA, FCA, SMC8T0 B. Comm, is a retired executive of Rogers Communications Inc. and a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. Recently, he took time to meet virtually with students as part of St. Mike’s Alumni Mentorship Program.

Change is Constant

Where has the time gone?

I blinked and suddenly I found myself in a virtual meeting with future St. Mike’s grads almost 41 years after my own graduation! 41 years!

That’s right. I am a St. Mike’s alum, having graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1980. I then embarked on a 33-year career—22 as partner—at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in taxation, before “retiring” to take a senior vice president position at Rogers Communications. In 2019, I retired from Rogers. The timing was planned but it turned out to be fortuitous because I was able to devote more time to my aging parents as they battled health issues and moved into a retirement home.

I usually make the point that I “retired from Rogers” as I did from PwC, as opposed to saying I am “retired.” After all, I plan to—and have remained—busy since leaving Rogers. I play more golf in the summer, and I spent more time at our place in Florida in the winter months BC—“Before COVID.” I have also written some papers and remain engaged in tax and other policy discussions at the C.D. Howe Institute, where I am a Senior Fellow. I also have more time to focus on my charitable and board responsibilities —until recently I was on the Board of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto and am currently on the Board of Catholic Cemeteries and Funeral Services.

While my graduation was over a generation ago, I have never been far away from university life. My oldest daughter is a SMC1T3 Commerce graduate and my youngest daughter graduated from Guelph University with a business degree in 2017. For many years after my own graduation, I was very involved in recruiting university students. I also taught tax to university students throughout most of my career, and I continue to do guest lectures at the University of Waterloo, where I was an Executive in Residence shortly after leaving Rogers.

Teaching was my primary source of personal development throughout my career. After graduation and later after another year of study to get my professional accounting designation, I guess I found it hard to discipline myself to be a student again. I found teaching a great way to stay current. Plus, teaching was very rewarding. I always found my interactions with students to be refreshing and a welcome diversion from the intensity of my professional career. Sure, student interactions could be intense at times—like around exam and mark time!—but it was not the same as dealing with client matters. I find students’ enthusiasm to be infectious. Their curiosity and questions about what to expect “in the real world” challenge me and are an opportunity for personal reflection.

So it was a no-brainer to accept the invitation to participate in a virtual meeting with future grads last month as part of St. Mike’s Alumni Mentorship Program.

Graduates of my generation faced challenges and uncertainty. Does anyone ever know what the future holds for them? Students graduating this year and possibly even the next, do so in circumstances they could not have imagined when they started their university journey. Who would have thought that this decade would begin with the world struggling through a pandemic the likes of which have not been experienced in more than 100 years?

How do students graduating from St. Mike’s meet the challenges brought on by the pandemic and quell their anxiety about the future?

Based on my experience, two things come to mind immediately.

First, as with all challenges we face, start by trusting yourself. Trust your abilities. Yes, you will be a work in process when you graduate. But take comfort from the fact that you will graduate from a preeminent college in a world-renowned university under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Arguably, no group has faced a greater challenge during the pandemic than students—of all ages. They have had to basically re-learn how to learn while being largely isolated from their peer group and unable to participate in extracurricular activities that are equally important to one’s development. How will you have met this challenge? One. Day. At. A. Time. That is how you will meet the challenge(s) “in the real world” brought on by the pandemic. And for those times when you do doubt your ability, continue to ensure your support system is in place—parents, spouse, partner, children, coach, friends, colleagues. At some point, they will need you as well.

Second, remember that change is constant. That is a good thing. Change can be the great equalizer if approached with a positive mind frame. Change creates opportunities. The pandemic is forcing all (profit and not for profit) businesses, organizations and institutions to re-invent themselves, to rethink their operating model from top to bottom. Everything from how to service customers to how and where employees will work. Those too hard-wired to the way of doing things BC will struggle. They will have difficulty pivoting. They will need help. Therein lies the opportunities for future graduates. 

I look forward to sharing more of my experiences in future blogs. Reach out to me at npantaleokc@gmail.com with any thoughts or questions.

In the meantime, stay safe!

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