Mentoring Program

IBIT’s Spring 2024 mentoring program which involved 16 students and 12 mentors ended the year with a reception for mentors and mentees to network. The average impact rating of the program was 6.3 on a scale from 1 to 7 with 7 being the highest.

IBIT matches Temple University students with senior executive IT mentors based on students’ interests and career goals using a structured process to ensure regular engagement. The mentoring program runs each term and has, to-date, served 189 students from three different schools at Temple since spring 2020. 

The high impact rating of 6.1 suggests that students and mentors are on average very positive about all aspects of the program. The highest rating was for the value of participation at 6.8, while the lowest rating of 5.79 was for enhancing professional network. However, this is still a positive result since both mentors and mentees contributed to the rating. The following comments illustrate the impact:

I was very nervous at first going into my first meeting but coming from my own experience, it was easier than I thought it was going to be to talk to my mentor and things just felt natural. I believe that I gained a lot of valuable knowledge and lessons from my mentor’s advice and experiences which makes me glad I did the program.

MENTEE

It’s fun giving guidance, especially surfacing career options the mentees may have not considered yet.

MENTOR

MENTORING PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

Mentors	Mentees	Mentees
Andrea Anania, Cigna (retired) Sondra Barbour, AGCO & Perspecta Chris Cera, Arcweb Technologies Craig Conway, FIS Kevin Dang, McKinsey & Company Larry Dignan, Constellation Insights Bruce Fadem, Wyeth (retired) Chris Kearns, Kyndryl Michael Luckenbill, Capgemini Neil Mundell, Cencora Sukumar Narayanan, CorVant Niraj Patel, Greystone Rich Rivara, Wave6 Dave Woodson, KPMG	Tyler Allen Sajjad Alloo Rhenece Andrew Nikitha Arramada Janice Augastine Duncan Carpenter James Carpenter Sarah D’Amico Victoria Doan Nahum Elias Nora Esack Adam Foster-Baird Jenna Fraioli Jonathan George Joseph Gorman Emily Greene	Evangelos Kamariotis Carly Krieger David Levit Veronica Li David Liang Aaron Markowitz Mia Myers Theresa Nguyen Alex O’Leary Alison Park Odalys Perez Victoria Phung Cole Roberts Kamilya Salikhova Nayana Santhosh Biko Smith Maya Smith

Sondra Barbour, Board Member, AGCO & Perspecta is the chair of the Mentoring Program. Laurel Miller manages the mentoring program for IBIT.

For more details about the impact assessment, visit: https://ibit.temple.edu/impact/

IBIT Mentoring Program

The Institute for Business and Information Technology’s Fall 2023 mentoring program engaged 17 students and 15 mentors.  IBIT matches Temple University students with senior executive IT mentors based on students’ interests and career goals using a structured process that ensures regular engagement. The mentoring program runs each semester and has, to-date, served 173 students from three different schools at Temple since spring 2020.  One measure of the program’s success is that mentees stay connected to their mentors long after the end of the mentoring assignment. Sondra Barbour, Board Member, AGCO & Perspecta is the chair of the Mentoring Program.

The fall semester’s mentors were:

• Andrea Anania, Cigna (retired)
• Sondra Barbour, AGCO & Perspecta
• Chris Cera, Arcweb Technologies
• Craig Conway, FIS
• Kevin Dang, McKinsey & Company
• Larry Dignan, Constellation Insights
• Bruce Fadem, Wyeth (retired)
• Vince Ford, Curtis Institute of Music
• Chris Kearns, Kyndryl
• Michael Luckenbill, Capgemini
• Neil Mundell, AmerisourceBergen
• Sukumar Narayanan, DecisivEdge
• Niraj Patel, Greystone
• Rich Rivara, Wave6
• Dave Woodson, KPMG

The fall semester’s mentees were:

• Tyler Allen
• Rhenece Andrew
• Nikitha Arramada
• Victoria Doan
• Nahum Elias
• Adam Foster-Baird
• Jonathan George
• Emily Greene
• Carly Krieger
• David Levit
• Veronica Li
• David Liang
• Mia Myers
• Alison Park
• Odalys Perez
• Cole Roberts
• Nayana Santhosh

IBIT’s mentoring program pairs industry professionals with Temple students, presenting the mentor and the student with an opportunity to learn from one another. The program which started in Spring 2020, has served 155 mentees to-date.

Deepya Paramata, a freshman MIS student (MIS ‘25), values the mentorship since it allows her to lead conversations with someone in the corporate world. Since her initial meeting with mentor Niel Mundell, VP at AmerisourceBergen, an IBIT partner firm, she feels encouraged, accepts the ambiguity of technology, and embraces the never-ending learning process.

Chris Cera, CEO, Arcweb Technologies, IBIT advisory board member, enjoys his mentor role, appreciating the ability to help young people solve personal challenges.

According to Kelly Liu (MIS ‘25) the mentoring program presents her with the opportunity to improve her professional development with the guidance of an industry professional. Now, Liu finds herself seizing more opportunities that allow her to discover her interests and as a means to learn more about herself and her passion. For Liu, passion translates into motivation which is the key to moving forward.

Rich Rivara, CEO of Wave6, is enthusiastic about his continued involvement in the program. His passion for giving back to students and learning about their own passions excites his imagination. He believes the mentorship program bridges education and experience. Rivara seeks to ensure that mentees share his excitement by bringing the students into meetings to provide a realistic view of a day-in-the-life of working in the corporate world.

Connections between the mentors and mentees do not end with the program. Mentors often keep in touch with past mentees and continue to provide advice and nourish their passions.

Sondra Barbour, IBIT advisory board member and chair of the mentoring program notes: I think it is important to note that not only are the students gaining knowledge from their mentor, but the mentor is gaining knowledge from the mentee. Engaging with the students has provided an avenue for me to keep in touch with the quality of the students as well as what the students are thinking and feeling about the department and curriculum. It’s been a valuable program.

The select program involved 14 participants in Spring 2023 including Jacob Andrien, Yann Awede, Tyler Bolling, Vincent Bracey Jr., Jaidyn Brown, Jackson Carpenter, Reya Islam, Ayesha Khalid, Gabriel Lins, Deepya Paramata, Neel Patel, Shivam Patel, Jamie Rubin, and Blake Bray.  

Mentors include Andrew Anania, retired EVP and CIO, Cigna, Sondra Barbour, Board of Directors for AGCO and Perspecta, Chris Cera, CEO, Arcweb Technologies, Dinesh Desai, Chairman, DARR Global Holdings, Inc., Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief, Constellation Research, Bruce Fadem, Retired VP and CIO, Wyeth, Vince Ford, SVP, Curtis Institute of Music, Jeff Hamilton, SVP, Pfizer Digital, Chris Kearns, VP, Kyndryl, Niel Mundell, VP, AmerisourceBergen, Sukumar Narayanan, President, DecisivEdge, Rich Rivara, CEO, Wave6, Craig Conway, FIS, Michael Luckenbill, Technology Manager, Capgemini, Dave Woodson, Director, KPMG, and Kevin Dang, Capabilities and Insights Analyst, McKinsey & Company.

To learn more, visit: https://ibit.temple.edu/ibit-mentoring-program/

The goal of the IBIT mentoring program is to match experienced executives with students.

The senior executives are usually members of the IBIT Advisory Board, employees of IBIT sponsor firms or alumni. The role of the mentor is to provide guidance and coaching to students augmenting the existing professional development resources, which includes providing ideas/feedback and serving as a sounding board for challenges and problems. The benefit for mentors is the opportunity to engage with students, and the benefit for students is to leverage the experience of senior executives. The IBIT mentoring program is chaired by Sondra Barbour, member of the IBIT Advisory Board.

IBIT matched 51 students to 20 industry executives.