Fidelity employees engage in virtual mentorship

Fidelity celebrated National Mentoring Month at the end of January by kicking off its innovative new program, which allows its employees to engage in a year-long virtual partnership with 40 students from the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati.

“The students will actually be talking with their mentors about some specific topics that coordinate with the Diplomas to Degrees program, which each month highlights a different topic—one month might be college access, one might be financial literacy,” says Niki Gordon, Fidelity’s manager of community relations and program mentor.

The virtual mentorship program is the result of a partnership organized by Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, whose mission is to “empower vulnerable children,” says Danielle Gentry-Barth, CYC chief development officer.

For Fidelity call center employees, it’s a way to engage with others in a meaningful way, without the stresses of coordinating schedules that require employees to leave the office during lunch or in between commutes.

“We have about 4,000 employees here, and we have a lot of folks on the phone and a lot of folks that are required to travel for their jobs as well,” Gordon says.

“When we were looking for mentoring opportunities, a lot required them to take a day out of their week to go visit the student at their school, so when you’re looking at someone with a day job and they have a family, a couple hours a week ends up taking a lot of time realistically out of their day, so we wanted to make it convenient for the mentor and the mentee.”

Do Good:

• Be a mentor.

• Support the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati.

• Contact CYC if you'd like to specialize a mentor program with your own company.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a project manager for Charitable Words. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.