Behind every great individual is a mentor who helped lead them to success. Think about it. Simba had Mufasa, Danielson had Mr. Miyagi, and Luke had Obi-Wan. The same is true in the stories of real-life heroes—Michael Jordan was mentored by coach Dean Smith, Thomas Jefferson was taught by George Mason, and Frank Sinatra was inspired by Bing Crosby. As a comm major who has the potential to change the world, you too have a mentor who is willing to help you become your best.

Who is my mentor?

BYU-I student, Daniel Larusso, seen meeting with his faculty member, Brother Miyagi.

As a comm student, you have already been assigned a full-time faculty mentor from the communication department. You can see who your assigned mentor is by clicking the “student” tab located in the dashboard of your BYU-I account. After clicking this tab, you will see your faculty mentor’s name along with the rest of your degree information on the right-hand side of the screen under the “Academic Summary” box.

What does my mentor do?

Your mentor is there to help you learn, develop and be successful throughout your career in studying communication at BYU-I. They are there to help you with anything you need, or to point you in the right direction if they themselves don’t have the answer. Here are a few specific ways in which your mentor can assist you.

• Help you choose an emphasis and module
• Help you with identify internships and potential career opportunities
• Work directly with you on your senior project
• Help you to know which classes to take and the best time to take them
• Answer questions about campus programs, societies, courses, degree requirements, etc.

How often should I meet with my mentor?

Overall, it’s really up to you how often you meet with your mentor. However, there are also a few mandatory meetings you will have, such as the one time you are required to meet with your mentor for part of your grade in COMM 100. You will also work closely and meet with them several times while in the process of completing your senior project. Other than these designated times, it is up to you to make the most of the valuable resource your faculty mentor can be.

BYU-I student, Luke Skywalker, seen meeting with his faculty mentor, Brother Kenobi.

Can I change my mentor?

Yes, you can change your mentor. To do this, you should first speak with the comm faculty member who you want to be your new mentor. Let them know you want to request them as your faculty mentor. You can then either visit the communication department office in Spori  229 or call the College of Business and Communication Academic Discovery Center to make the change official.

Although not required, it can be beneficial to select a faculty mentor who has experience in your desired emphasis. Here is a list of full-time faculty members within the communication department and the emphases they are associated with.

Advertising                                        
•  Jeff Hochstrasser
•  Beth Hendricks

Organizational Comm./Advocacy
•  Andra Hansen
•  Eric Embree
•  Brent Bean
•  Robyn Bergstrom

News/Journalism
•  Melissa Bair
•  Lane Williams

Public Relations
•  Mike Cannon
•  Ward Hicks

Video Production
•  Brian Howard
•  Christian Mawlam

Visual Communication
•  Caryn Esplin
•  Eric Lybbert
•  Cory Kerr
•  Ben Pingel

Remember to always be respectful of your mentor and their time as they too have busy schedules. You should always act in a professional manner when meeting or communicating with your mentor.

By now you’ve likely noticed how fast your BYU-I student email inbox can fill up. If only your bank account was the same way, right? In comparing the vast amount of emails you receive each day to a flood, it can be easy to miss the small gold nuggets that are swept up in this raging river of electronic messages. These metaphorical gold nuggets are the emails you receive each week from the BYU-Idaho Academic Discovery Center – College of Business & Communication (CBC). These emails contain the CBC’s online newsletter and can be worth more than their weight in gold if you know how to use them.

Upcoming Events

The CBC’s email newsletter is divided into four different parts. “Upcoming Events” is the first section you will see when you open the newsletter. A list of future events along with the time, location, and a brief description are given for each event. Some examples of on-campus events included within the newsletter include networking meetings, special conferences, and companies coming to recruit at BYU-I.

Society Events

This section will tell you about the different events put on by those societies within the business and communication majors. Similar to the previous section, times and locations are included for each event.

Career Workshops

As part of the career workshop series, the BYU-Idaho Academic Discovery Center regularly teaches career workshops on various topics such as how to network or how to craft an effective résumé. These workshops are free and are only an hour long.

Jobs & Internships

This is the last and most valuable section of the CBC’s weekly newsletter. Within this section, you will see multiple job and internship opportunities listed in a table format. This format helps you easily see important information for each position such as the job title, employer, position type, location, and which majors the employer is looking for. In the far left side of the table is a ID number column. These numbers are the Career Navigator ID for each position. It is through Career Navigator that you can use the listed ID numbers to apply for any positions that interest you.

You now know how to make the most of the CBC’s weekly newsletter and find value in the flood of emails that  constantly bombards your student email account. Get out there and start taking advantage of the golden opportunities that await you!