Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program

Program Overview

The Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program (CASMP) was launched in the spring of 2004 in order to further the development of Cornell's undergraduates. The mentoring program seeks to create personal and professional relationships between current students and alumni mentors, who act as role models and provide guidance to the undergraduates. Students who choose to have a mentor will learn about coping with and succeeding in life at Cornell and beyond from alumni who themselves have shared that experience with all its challenges and all its promise.  Over 900 alumni from all over the United States have generously volunteered to serve as mentors since the inception of the program. To date, over 1,000 students have joined the Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program and have been matched with an alumnus mentor. 

Our belief is that a close and continuous connection with an alumnus or alumna will help in the overall success of the students that choose to participate in the program. To this end, since the program's inception, students have been matched with one alumni mentor for the duration of the student's Cornell journey.  Beginning in the spring of 2012 Cornell will restructure the program to give students two distinctive opportunities to interact with and to form long-term relationships with a Cornell alumni mentor.  The First-year Mentorship Experience will match incoming students with an alumni mentor for their first year only.  The goal of this mentorship experience is to provide a successful transition to Cornell and a positive first-year experience for incoming Cornell undergraduates. All first year Cornell undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible for this program.  African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American students are particularly encouraged to participate. The Career Development Mentorship Experience will provide sophomores and juniors with an opportunity to be matched with mentors for career exploration and development.  More details on this new and exciting aspect of the program are forthcoming.