About the Webinar
For higher education institutions, the promise of mentorship is undeniable: it builds a sense of belonging, improves retention, and guides students through critical transitions. But there is a vast difference between running a boutique, high-touch program for a select cohort and scaling that initiative to support an entire incoming class.
As a program grows, institutional leaders face a distinct set of hurdles. How do you expand your reach without causing administrative burnout? How do you scale operations while maintaining the high match quality and human touch that make mentorship meaningful in the first place?
The challenge is no longer proving that mentorship works: it’s managing the capacity, technology, and strategic patience required to scale it.
Join Kelly Wenig (Director of the Blue Devil Achievement Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stout) for a deep dive into the real-world strategy behind growing a mentorship initiative from the ground up. Through a combination of executive foresight and practical operational insights, we will explore how UW-Stout deliberately scaled their MentorLink initiative to match their entire incoming class.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
- Pacing: How to intentionally pace your program’s growth to ensure your infrastructure and mentor capacity keep up with student demand.
- Preserving the Human Touch: Proven tactics for maintaining deep, high-quality match criteria even when transitioning from small cohorts to a university-wide rollout.
- Defeating Administrative Burnout: How to leverage technology and operational design to eliminate manual bottlenecks, allowing your staff to focus on student impact rather than spreadsheets.
- Building Peer-to-Peer Capacity: Strategic insights into recruiting, training, and retaining the student mentor pipeline necessary to sustain large-scale institutional initiatives.
Featured Speaker
Kelly Wenig, PhD
Director, Blue Devil Achievement Center, University of Wisconsin-Stout
Kelly Wenig has worked in higher education since graduate school. He finished his PhD in American History in 2017 and began working in student success at Iowa State University’s Dean of Students Office. In 2020, he took a position as Director of the Holland Academic Success Center at Wayne State College. He has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Stout since 2023 and is the Director of the Blue Devil Achievement Center where he oversees academic advising, academic coaching, peer tutoring, and peer mentoring.
Register Now
Secure your spot to discover how to transition your mentorship initiative from a successful pilot to a primary driver of institution-wide student success. Register to attend live or receive a copy of the recording!