Ohio State students and alumni mingle at the Longaberger Alumni House. Credit: Courtesy of the Student Alumni Counsel
Through a mentor-based pen pal program, the Student-Alumni Council strives to fulfill their mission of connecting Buckeyes past, present and future.
Buckeye Pen Pals is a mentorship program that pairs Ohio State students with alumni based on career interests, said Aaron Gillespe, vice president of alumni outreach and a fourth-year in biomedical engineering.
“With Ohio State having the largest alumni association alumni network in the country, we have a lot of very cool alumni that always want to give back to our current students because they were in our shoes once,” Gillespe said.
Since this program is based on career interests, it allows students to be paired with experienced mentors who help them think through things in a way they wouldn’t have thought of alone, said Alaina Croskey, a former member of Student-Alumni Council who was a Buckeye Pen Pals student and current alumni member.
“I know it’s hard to reach out to people, especially like cold calling, but it gives you a real world person that you can talk to and feel comfortable with and even just bounce ideas off of and hear what post grad is like and hear different career paths,” Croskey said.
Gillespie said they have had members who have gotten internships from their pen pal or other career opportunities.
Each year, the council markets the program to both students and alumni through emails and newsletters for them to be registered within a month-long window, Gillespie said.
Students can register for Buckeye Pen Pals by completing a questionnaire survey form by Dec. 21. Alumni can register using a separate survey form.
All students and alumni are welcome to apply because there isn’t a specific criteria, Gillespie said.
“We don’t put caps on anything because we have so many alumni and so many students that we don’t have to worry about it,” Gillespie said. “We always find someone for everyone.”
Once registration is complete, the pairing process begins. An algorithm is used to sort through the questionnaire responses and present initial pairings.
From there, the council checks the pairings to make sure each student is paired with an alumni that matches career interest or major — while also reviewing comments and additional feedback left on the surveys — to perfect the pairings, Gillespie said.
In addition to pairing similar career interests, students and mentors are matched based on interests, campus involvement and favorite traditions to make a more compatible pair, Gillespie said.
“It’s not just ‘Hey, you’re the same career as me,’ it’s ‘Oh, you can connect on other things too,’” Gillespie said. “It’s more natural and you get better results when you have these kind of more natural connections.”
The students are given their assigned pairing, where they then reach out to the alumnus, Gillespie said.
Most of the pairs connect over Zoom, but are not limited to other forms of communications like emailing, texting or meeting up in person if the alum is local, Gillespie said.
As a student at Ohio State, Croskey had a pen pal her third and fourth year.
“I feel like as a student, networking can be really intimidating and just kind of difficult, but being paired with someone who intentionally is signing up to help a fellow Buckeye is really special,” Croskey said.
When Croskey first got to Ohio State, she said one of the first things she noticed was how much Buckeyes like to help other Buckeyes, which is exactly what she got to do when she became an alumna pen pal after she graduated.
“First of all, it’s very nice to give back,” Croskey said. “I feel like finally being at the stage where I can give back is just very rewarding and impactful.”
Last year, Buckeye Pen Pals had around 400 pairs, with a total of 800 students and alumni, Gillespie said.
“It’s really one of our favorite programs because of how broad of a reach we can get,” Gillespie said.
