Mentoring—finding feedback, friends & FUN.

In the past, the word “mentor” referred to a trusted friend or counselor. In 2015, the creative industry is ultracompetitive and ever-evolving, making it challenging to connect with such a person. Mentors are invaluable, particularly when you’re just starting your career as a designer. According to Forbes, there’s more than just guidance and warm and fuzzy support to mentoring:

•Both mentors and mentees were approximately 20% more likely to get a raise than people who did not participate in the mentoring program.

•Employees who received mentoring were promoted FIVE times more often than people who didn’t have mentors.

•Mentors were SIX times more likely to have been promoted to a bigger job.

At AIGA Cincinnati, we’re working hard to connect seasoned designers with newly budding creatives. This year we introduced a Mentors-on-call approach to building professional relationships in our fast paced world, allowing more flexibility for busy students and professionals to connect. We kicked the mentoring year off with a speed dating style networking event in January. This month we met for a casual pre-portfolio review, where students received feedback on in-progress work (and free pizza!). This event served as a warm up prior to our final portfolio review for graduating college seniors. It was an incredible evening of learning and growing, for mentees and mentors!

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We’re looking forward to our next event– a gallery show where mentees will show off one of the projects they got feedback on and worked hard to improve. Although we’re no longer accepting mentees for this event, mentors or professionals are welcome to attend and check out some amazing student work.

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Our third Mentors On Call event is a gallery show. Students were encouraged to submit work that was previously critiqued at the portfolio review. We’ll print and hang the work, all they have to do is show up! We invite mentors and any other professionals to attend, you will be able to vote for your favorite pieces while offering additional feedback. The top 3 student pieces will receive some awesome prizes!

Student Gallery Show: Thursday, March 5 at The Art Academy of Cincinnati
5:30 – 6:30 Mentoring showcase & voting in the commons area
6:30 – 7:00 Public mingling in the commons to show off the students work
7:00 – 8:00 Silas Munro speaks in the lecture hall (Mentees & Mentors are invited)
Get tickets to hear Silas Munro at cincinnati.aiga.org/event/speaks-silas-munro
8:00 – 9:00 Meet & Greet with Silas Munro and public voting in the commons area

Do you have an incredible mentor? Has becoming a mentor helped you grow? Share your experience with us!

By aigacincinnati
Published February 25, 2015
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