Sign Up to be an NPC Mentor or Mentee; Applications Due April 15

Applications for participation in the 2010 National Press Club Mentoring
Program are due Thursday, April 15.

This is a one-year commitment aimed at benefiting members at all stages of their careers. The program is open to journalists and PR professionals.

Once matches are made, mentors will be given a copy of the mentee's
application to the program. After meeting at a kick-off reception and
based on what the mentee said in the program application, mentors and
mentees can mutually agree on how often they would like to have contact
and under what circumstances. At minimum, a mentor should allow for
roughly two hours of interaction a month. Some relationships may involve
more, some less.

Mentors can expect to be asked to critique reporting/writing, help with
a resume, act as a sounding board, provide a reference, advise on
navigating the ways of Washington any maybe even have a drink at the
Reliable Source.

For mentees, be as expansive as possible in answering questions on the
application so the best possible match can be achieved.

Past mentees have gone on to land assignments writing front page stories at USA
Today, reporting from Iraq and more. Each year, there are normally more
individuals seeking to be a mentee than there are mentors, so please
consider being a mentor to a young member if you have the time. This
year, we are particularly in need of veteran club members with
experience in public relations or public affairs.

As of March 29, eight members have applied to be mentees and five to be mentors.

The program is sponsored by the Professional Development Committee
at the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library; to apply, fill out
the online application at: http://npc.press.org/training/mentoring.cfm .

Unlike your taxes, this program only costs your time! If you have any
questions or concern, please contact Rod Kuckro at [email protected]