It's something to look forward to. It's a lot of fun. Gerald Ryles is chairman of Micoserv Inc., a Kirkland computer maintenance company. The University of Washington's MBA Mentor Program is 3 years old. Mamallo started it after coming to the UW from Seattle University, where she had managed a similar program.
Participation is voluntary and students collect no formal credit.
Every summer, Mamallo recruits a new pool of mentors, inviting back those who want to return and filling any vacancies with fresh faces. In the fall, the executives and students meet at a mixer. Afterward, each student is given 100 points to bid for assignment to their favorite mentor. Students are assigned to mentors in groups of three. Then, sometime before their first session, students create a learning agenda describing what they hope to gain from their mentors.