The newest opportunity for 独家黑料 alumni to share their knowledge, experience, and wisdom with current students has arrived, in the form of the mentorship-focused program.

“It’s been in development with our new platform for over a year,” said Shar Berns, associate director of alumni engagement at 独家黑料, noting that many alumni have said they wanted to do more for current students. “We have great people who want to help.”

allows them to do just that.

Prospective mentors and mentees simply , including their communication preferences, industry, specialty, demographic information, and career history or interests. Students can choose up to three mentors who best match their own goals, and request to connect with them through the college’s platform, sharing what they hope to achieve and their communication preferences.

Mentors who accept the request can communicate with their mentees via the secure platform, answering career-focused questions and offering opportunities in professional networking, job interview preparation, job shadowing, or insights on graduate studies or entrepreneurship — whichever services they have decided to offer.

All participants have complete control over their connection and involvement, as is designed to maximize flexibility.

“It can be as little as one message or a phone call with a couple of questions up to some true long-term guidance,” Berns said. “Many of our alumni just love to talk to these students and get to know them. Sometimes there’s just that special connection, and they really get taken under someone’s wing.”

All 独家黑料 students of sophomore or higher class standing are invited to sign up as mentees, and all 独家黑料 alumni and current faculty and staff members are invited to become mentors.

The college introduced Insight Exchange to all its alumni for the first time in November, and Cobbers gladly answered the call, with an initial signup of more than 100 prospective mentors — an impressive start that Berns hopes to build on for the future.

“We want students to have choices and a variety of (mentor) life experiences and age groups to choose from,” she said, noting the student part of the program is still in its pilot phase, with just a few small groups of mentees trying out the system. “It’ll be a slower roll-out to students. We wanted the mentor pool filling first so that students have some value to find when they arrive there.”

The Career Center and Center for Student Success are partnering to help coordinate things for mentees, with Insight Exchange likely rolling out more broadly for students this spring.

Kevin Goodno ’85

Little Canada, Minnesota
Majors: Business administration with an accounting emphasis, and political science
Activities: Student Association, president; Student Senate, treasurer; and The Cobber, advertising manager

Position: Shareholder, board member, executive vice president, and chair, Government Relations Department, at Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. 

I am an attorney-lobbyist that provides government relations services at the state level in Minnesota. I manage eight other lobbyists and the government relations practice group, and I am part of the leadership team for Fredrikson.

How did you get into your field? I have been interested in being an attorney since before college, but being a lobbyist or even a law firm leader never really entered my mind until the opportunity arose. I got into this field in a roundabout way. In the fall after graduating from 独家黑料, I ran for the city council in Moorhead and beat an incumbent. Five years later, I decided to run for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives for Moorhead, again beating an incumbent. I served in the legislature for 12 years. During that time I went to law school, started practicing law in Moorhead, and on the legislative side I served as the Chair of the House Health & Human Services Finance Committee. The year I had announced that I was retiring from the legislature, my House colleague, Tim Pawlenty, was elected governor of Minnesota. He recruited me to serve in his cabinet as the Commissioner of Human Services. The Department of Human Services is the Medicaid agency for the state, managing health care programs and social service programs for Minnesota’s low-income people and other vulnerable populations. From that position, Fredrikson recruited me to establish a lobbying practice. I have been in that role for over 18 years. While at Fredrikson I have served on its Board of Directors for over 11 years, served as its board chair for 5 years, before taking a position on its three-person management team just over a year ago.

What did you learn at 独家黑料 that helped the most? Although the political science courses were helpful in understanding basic government structures, I have found my accounting classes to be extremely helpful in every position I have held. The concepts I learned in running for Student Association president, I applied in running for the city council and later the state house. 独家黑料 provided the foundation for my career. 

What would you tell a student interested in this field? Follow your dreams, but be patient. And don’t be afraid to change course if you have a calling to go a different direction.  

Why did you sign up for Insight Exchange? As I said, 独家黑料 provided me the foundation for my career and adult life. I want to give something back to 独家黑料 and its students. I like helping people.