Mocktails
with Mentors
Drew
Stewart, posted Sept. 29, 2006
MU Career
Services and the CAFNR Connections career mentoring program
hosted their second annual Mocktails with Mentors event on
September 21 in Eckles Hall. The event allowed CAFNR students
to practice their networking skills alongside assigned mentors
from the field of agriculture.
“Mocktails
with Mentors gives students a lot of help with their career
paths, interviewing skills and pretty much anything they plan
on going into,” junior Ag Journalism major Katie Allen
said.
The event
was led by Executive Chef Leslie Jett who also taught the
attendants proper cocktail party etiquette. With Jett’s
assistance, the students and mentors learned to mingle while
properly holding onto their finger food, which included smoked-salmon
mousse, humus-stuffed pita bread and peppermint cheesecake
phyllo cups.
Later
in the evening, all the attendants were given a small sheet
of paper with a particular problem on it. Both the students
and mentors were then forced to network with each other to
find the necessary information to solve the problem. For example,
a student may have received a slip requiring them to figure
out how a certain variety of wheat is processed. At that point
they’d have to work the room to find the answer.
“I
really enjoy [Mocktails with Mentors],” Doug Mertens,
mentor and field sales manager for NK Brand Seeds said. “The
advice the students get can really give them a heads up in
their career.”
The attendance
for this year’s Mocktails event dropped considerably
from last year’s, dropping from 80 to roughly 25, according
to Natalie Scherer, Career Services student assistant and
senior hotel and restaurant management major.
Students
were required to register no later than Sept. 19 and the dress
code was business casual.
