Lisa Patterson '98

As students grapple with what a post-PLU life looks like in the wake of a global pandemic, economic instability and social change, PLU alumni are poised to help.

Through the new LuteLink platform, PLU students can instantly connect with PLU alumni for networking, informational interviews, resume reviews, mentorship, job shadowing, internship advice and more. Alumni can search for fellow alumni in a geographic region, industry or interest area.

When the COVID-19 crisis hit and PLU students had to transition to online learning, Foege reached out to Kaur. He wanted to see how she was doing in this unprecedented time and offer additional support.

Before LuteLink, there wasn’t a simple way for students to connect to alumni on their own, said Jessica Pagel, ’08, co-director of ASC.

“LuteLink helps open up a world of possibilities and connections to our students who might not have any of those connections through their own personal networks,” she said. “Being a first-generation college student myself, I think especially of the growing population of first-generation students at PLU and how beneficial this expanded network can be.”

The full impact of COVID-19 on employment is still unknown. But, in times when students are reporting rescinded job offers and cancelled internships, making these types of connections becomes even more important.

“Alumni offering support to students is one of the most direct ways to make a difference,” said Andrew. “Whether it’s sharing career advice, offering a recommendation or checking in with a student, these simple actions can open doors to the future for PLU students.”

The Department of Economics, with support from PLU Alumni & Student Connections, is helping students consider how their studies can be applied to real-life career paths with a program launched about two years ago. It matches economics students with mentors who are PLU economics alumni.

“Some of the things I challenged Chloe with were to think really critically about the different paths she wanted to pursue,” Graciano said. “The great thing about economics is that it opened up a lot of doors. I challenged her to think about the right balance between her interests and passions and what meaningful work for her would look like.”

Madison Salisbury ’21 is entering her fourth year at PLU and is double majoring in economics and business. She heard about the mentorship program through Travis and the Economics Club. She was paired with Molly (Banks) Kennedy ’03, marketing manager at Zillow Group.

She shadowed Kennedy for a day at Zillow headquarters in Seattle.

Sung asked how she drew the illustrations.

“She said, ‘I listen to music,’ ” Sung recalled. “So, I said, ‘Lexi, if I hire you, can you find that music? Because that’s what I want.’”

The design team for PLU’s Marketing and Communications department includes Sung, two full-time designers, and usually one intern. The intern is part of the team that’s responsible for a lot of work — everything from university print publications like ResoLute to helping create a dynamic web presence. Sung also oversees the PLU Impact staff, a group of 10-12 students who create school posters, prints, and design projects on campus and off.

Usually Sung takes on a different intern each year. Over the years, there have been more than a dozen. But Johnson returned to the post three times.

“Yes, I hold the record and I’m proud of it,” she said. “I like to think it was my snickerdoodle muffins that convinced them to let me keep coming back. But in all honesty, it was definitely the team. Everyone there is so knowledgeable. I wanted to soak up as much knowledge as possible to become a great designer/artist.”

Today Johnson, who majored in communications studies with a minor in business marketing, applies the skills she learned in the classroom and at the elbow of Sung and his team to her work as a product designer at Knack Collective, a Seattle marketing agency.

Johnson said the internship taught her not only about the creative process and design, but also about life and what it’s like to work under a good leader.

“At PLU I was going through a really hard time, just dealing with a lot,” she recalled. “Having that office be my comfort zone honestly kept me at PLU. The field trip, lunch outings, TV show debates, and diversity was all just great. I honestly haven’t experienced anything like it since I’ve graduated.”

Sung believes mentorships happen effortlessly at PLU because the school is full of high achievers like Johnson who embrace learning. It’s one of his favorite things about his job.

“It goes beyond just learning about the student,” Sung said. “It’s being invited to have dinner with a family. Being able to talk to a mom or an aunt. That’s power. That’s beautiful. That’s why you keep living. That’s what it is about. You want to see these people succeed.”

“I’m really grateful that I was able to get an internship like this at PLU and I think it really was able to show me pathways I didn’t know existed,” Walter said. “I think it enabled me to tap into a creative side and look at different sources of inspiration.”

Now Walter applies many of the skills he learned at PLU in his job at the Washington Shoe Company in Kent, where he helps with branding, design, marketing, and more.

Connecting with students is Sung’s superpower. When COVID-19 struck and postponed May graduation, he stepped up with faculty members and volunteered to call students to congratulate them personally on behalf of PLU.

For a guy with a bubbly personality who makes conversation seem easy, his superpower almost failed him. Sung felt pangs of anxiety making calls.

“I was so nervous to cold-call four students I knew nothing about,” he said. “And I thought about it — ‘Why? Why do I struggle?’ And I think it kind of goes back in line with my belief in terms of how staff, or just how people should interact with people. You should know them. It should be authentic.”

The MarCom design internship has Chikoti-Bandua thinking about a career in design.

“Design is the way of the future for me,” he said. “I’ve previously thought of design as something only limited to commercial applications.”

But he now believes designers across the world will play a major role in the redesign of many of macro and micro interactions in global healthcare, government, big data, and the ways in which the private sector operates.

“That’s something that I want to be a part of,” he said.

Johnson plans to attend graduate school at the University of Roehampton in London to earn her MBA.

“Simon is an amazing leader and the best boss I’ve ever had,” she said. “He truly showed me what it means to be a leader, as well as how important it is to empower your teammates for a project’s success. He’s just an all-around great example of what leadership in the creative industry looks like.”

“I always appreciated that he challenged me to be better, and saw things in me that I couldn’t see in myself.” And today, her impressive portfolio is something she’s proud to open.

Once that mentor and mentee connection is made, it’s oftentimes lasting.

Even though she graduated, Johnson and Sung stay in touch.

That’s just how Sung — a leader who doesn’t mince words and gives students “tough love” to help them grow — likes it.

“PLU graduates are going to be change-makers. They are going to change this world in a great, positive way,” Sung said. “And if you can help them in some small, tiny fashion, then, hey — do it!”

Steve Smith, ’81 and MAE ’88, has been on both sides of the mentor-mentee relationship.

In both his professional life and through his volunteer work as a member of Rotary Club of Tacoma, he encourages others to give their time and offer their wisdom.

Smith is the executive director of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable in Federal Way. The organization’s mission is to make systemic change to help improve the outcomes for Black students across the state, starting with early education. The Roundtable wants students to not only receive a diploma, but to be prepared for post-secondary education or whatever life paths they choose.

As a Rotary member, Smith recruits business professionals to be matched with elementary school kids who need a reading buddy. Relationships can span a school year — and sometimes three.

Smith has learned a lot through his experiences. Here are some mentoring tips he shared during a recent conversation with ResoLute:

Smith once was a mentor to a kid who was struggling in college with “barely a nickel to his name.” Later, the student started software companies and suddenly was making a lot of money. Smith didn’t really understand that business, but the mentorship continued as they discussed big-picture life issues, like friendship, business ethics, and more.

Sure, the reading program helps kids get caught up to their age-appropriate reading level. But, perhaps more important, it gives students adults who are committed to their success and invested in it. Smith knows top-level executives who block out 30 minutes of reading buddy time on their packed calendars. Their time commitment is ironclad.

Smith has conducted healthy arguments with his mentees because he doesn’t just tell them what they want to hear. Sometimes he tells them what he thinks they need to hear. He never tells them what to do. But he might introduce pathways that a mentee may have overlooked.

He tells those just starting out in the career world to connect with people they look up to — or are where they’d like to see themselves some day.

Sometimes mentorships run their course. Sometimes they just never really click. If this is the case it is good to identify the issue and help create a different match.

Annalise Campbell ’17 was one of Skipper’s students, and their mentor relationship helped lead her to her career.

“Mentors are important because they are the people that you often don’t know that you need until you have their help,” said Campbell, who teaches English at Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn. “Dr. Skipper is not only a wonderful mentor, but also a personal hero of mine. (He) gave me the right amount of push I needed to fully discover my passion not only for writing, but for teaching the craft.”

Courtney Gould ’16, was a freshman when she first took one of Skipper’s classes. She recalled coming into it confident that she was a “great writer” already. His critiques threw her at first.

“Many of us writers resist instruction at first. We really want to believe we’re perfect at what we do,” Gould said. “Even though many of us might go through an initial period of resentment, Professor Skipper’s patience and perseverance make him an excellent mentor and ally. Even when he critiqued me, I knew he cared about my work, and that faith has stuck with me ever since.”

Skipper agrees that teaching writing comes with unique challenges and approaches.

“The first few days of class we work to debunk the ignorant notion that anyone capable of writing a sentence can just as easily write a story that an audience would want to read,” he said. “We also talk about what it means to be a writer.”

Skipper works on helping students develop self-reflection within their communication — because if they can develop those skills, it can be applied to life regardless of whether they choose a writing career.

Skipper shows students how to “step back from their own work, consider it critically with humility and compassion, then proceed to revise — even if that means taking the whole thing apart and rebuilding it to make it work. These aren’t just skills for writing an engaging, meaningful story; these are practices for living an engaged and meaningful life.”

Students like Gould arrive in his classes with the goal of becoming a writer.

“There are students who want nothing more than to be a writer, because their lives were transformed by books and they want to do the same for others,” he said. “Often these students want more than anything to talk about those books, and they’re excited to talk to someone who understands this desire to tell stories.”

He often scans his “mental bookshelf” and recommends things they may not have read.

Skipper believes the best mentors are those who don’t even know they are doing it.

“The instructors at PLU are generally quite happy to speak about their area of expertise with students outside of class,” he said. “If a student has an inkling of curiosity about an area of study, they should seek out instructors in that area for a conversation. It’s also good for students to familiarize themselves with that instructor’s scholarship. It can make a tremendous difference to know what the scholar you may be working alongside has contributed to the community you’re considering joining.”

Gould is grateful to have crossed paths with Skipper at PLU. She’s about to join his community as a published author of “The Dead and the Dark,” a supernatural thriller.

She recalls his advice to, “write the story we knew we could write, because specificity is key.”

“I used that feedback when writing “The Dead and the Dark,” and I do believe it’s that advice that made the book publication-ready,” Gould said.