When Austin learned that she could mentor a first-generation student at her alma mater through a new partnership between the River Hawk Scholars Academy (RHSA) and Salesforce, she jumped at the opportunity to pay it forward.
“I just want to be helpful in some way,” Austin said as she met her mentee, freshman business administration major Deion Lightfoot-Taylor of Lawrence, at the program’s recent kickoff event at the Saab ETIC’s Perry Atrium.
Photo by Ed Brennen
Political science alum Kevin Rourke and his mentee, freshman Mildred Kumah, take part in an icebreaker.
There, 20 first-year RHSA students of all majors met their mentors from Salesforce for the first time, getting to know them over dinner and icebreaker activities. For the remainder of the academic year, the mentors and mentees will connect at least once a month, either virtually or in person, capped by an end-of-year get-together. The goal is to provide students with whatever type of guidance they may need, whether it’s about academics, adjusting to college life or future career paths.
Hurwitz, an associate teaching professor of English, told students that what they get out of the mentoring relationship depends on what they put into it.
“Embrace it, take advantage of it,” he said. “You’re not a passive part of the relationship, you’re an agent of it.”
Photo by Ed Brennen
River Hawk Scholars Academy Faculty Director Matthew Hurwitz welcomes the mentors and mentees to the program.
Joy Bausemer, who manages Salesforce’s relationship with the UMass system, says all 20 mentorship spots were filled the day the opportunity was posted internally to employees at the cloud computing and customer relationship management software giant.
“I’ve done volunteering events with other schools, but nothing as coordinated as this,” says Bausemer, who is serving as a mentor herself, matched with freshman biochemistry major Victor Dos Santos.
In addition to Austin, three other UML alumni who work locally for Salesforce volunteered as mentors: lead solution engineer Kevin Rourke (’95, political science), software architect Kunal Nawale (’02, computer engineering) and lead infrastructure engineer Purvi Patel (’93, computer science).
As they enjoyed dinner, Lightfoot-Taylor told Austin that he had just attended his first UML hockey game, an experience he never had in high school. Austin revealed that she was a big River Hawk hockey fan – and even proposed to Rowdy at a game once.
Photo by Ed Brennen
Computer science alum Purvi Patel, a lead infrastructure engineer at Salesforce, gets to know her mentee at the kickoff dinner.
“I’m excited about the program,” says Lightfoot-Taylor, whose concentrations are in analytics and operations management. “As a business major, I know the importance of meeting new people and making connections. And since I’m a freshman who’s new to Lowell, I wanted to meet somebody who could show me the ropes and help with the transition to college.”
Austin, who worked as associate director of campus life at Tufts University before joining Salesforce in June, looks forward to being a sounding board for Lightfoot-Taylor and helping him connect to campus.
“Those things are important to me to make sure he gets the most out of the…
