As Justine Yang walked towards the coffee shop on a cool fall afternoon, she had a lot of questions. She was starting her final year in Media Studies at the University of Guelph-Humber and didn’t know what to do after she graduated.
“I wasn’t sure if I should look for a job in my field or explore my options and spend some time travelling,” she says. “I was worried if I didn’t join the job market right away, I’d seem irrelevant when I got back.”
Justine took those questions and more, and brought them for a cup of coffee with Gannon Loftus. After graduating from UofGH’s Media Studies program in 2006, Gannon has spent 10 years working in media, public relations and communications, so he could provide a bit of perspective for Justine. As they met and talked, Gannon addressed her concerns one by one.
“As someone who’s been doing this for a decade, I was able to provide a bit of insight into what she could expect,” Gannon says. “I had a good sense of the things she did and didn’t need to worry about.”
Despite being at UofGH 10 years apart, it was UofGH that brought Justine and Gannon together. Both had signed up for the university’s new Alumni Mentorship Program, which takes interested students and alumni and pairs them together according to research or work interest. For mentors, they share their story and talk about life after graduation, coaching their mentee on the ins and outs of their industry. For students, they ask questions about their mentor’s life, work and get a chance to network with a professional in their field.
“Mentorship is really about becoming friends with someone, providing guidance and support where you can, knowing that you share some similarities,” Gannon says. “When Justine and I met, we spoke a lot about my career, where it has taken me and some of things I’ve learned through my job experiences.”
The two continued to meet and chat over the coming months and each time Justine felt a little more confident in her plan. As she worked through her classes and then served as one of the EMERGE Conference’s executive directors, she kept in mind the things she and Gannon had talked about. Justine says it was a big help to have someone with experience rooting for her and giving her advice about her next steps.
“I’d recommend just about anystudent think about taking part in this,” Justine says. “I learned a lot about the media industry and I realized that it’s okay to not know where you’re heading all the time. What you think and hope you’ll be doing can change, and you just need to embrace that change.”
Now a proud alumna, Justine has been working since graduation as a Liaison Officer for UofGH. She travels Ontario, telling students about what it's like to be a student at UofGH.
Learn more about the Alumni Mentorship Program.