In the spring of 2004 the Provost's Office launched the Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program (CASMP) principally for underrepresented minority students in the Class of 2008. Envisioned and developed by Isaac Kramnick, the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Alumni-Student Mentoring Program seeks to improve Cornell's ability to both attract and graduate more underrepresented minority students by providing each student who wishes to participate in the program with an alumnus mentor.
Our belief is that a close and continuous connection with an alumnus will help in the recruitment, retention, graduation and overall success of these students. 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. To that end Alicia S. Torrey '83, formerly Director of Minority Alumni Programs, has been appointed the first Director of the Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program.
CASMP mentors will serve as role models and be available to share information with a student on an array of topics ranging from insights regarding undergraduate life at Cornell to interviewing and networking skills. Mentors will be asked to serve for the entire four-year undergraduate career of the students with whom they are matched. As the program develops and we match freshmen from subsequent classes, alumni mentors will have the option of being matched with from one to up to four students.
