Alaska Universities offer executive programs for future leaders: mentoring, business partnerships, and inspiration lead co-curricular activities.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: LEADERSHIP

Speaking of the Alaska business community, Terry Nelson says, "This is a remarkable place ... It's amazing how close-knit the community is and the networking here ... you're only about a phone call and a half away from connecting to a CEO." Nelson is an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) College of Business and Public Policy (CBPP) and is the program director of the CBPP Leadership Fellows program. The mission of the program is "Preparing UAA College of Business and Public Policy students to be future leaders who meet the needs of Alaska organizations through leadership, professional development programs, and mentoring." It only makes sense, considering Alaska's unique business environment, that Alaska colleges should be training Alaska's up-and-coming business leaders.

The Leadership Fellows Program

The UAA CBPP Leadership Fellows is a mentoring program that currently consists of fifteen students, five of whom are "exceptional senior undergrad students," as Nelson puts it, and ten are students in the MBA or MPA program. "When I came on board, they had already started a small program with only four students for one semester. After I did my research, I found a semester isn't enough." Nelson expanded the program to be a full year, and she also implemented a system of structure. "Before the students were told, 'Here are your mentors, go be mentored,' and that was it," Nelson says.

Students must apply to the program and are interviewed, Nelson says, both to screen for exceptional students and to give them real-world experience with an interview process. Accepted students are required to meet with their mentors at least once a month during the academic year, but Nelson says that most of the mentors meet with the students twice a month. "It's amazing the effort these mentors are putting into this, free of charge," she says. The titles of participating mentors run the gamut: CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and directors.

She explains that the Leadership Fellows is co-curricular and students meet with their mentors and complete additional work outside of their degree-focused classes. When to meet is "a mutual agreement between the student and mentor," Nelson says. "We tell the proteges, 'You've got to be flexible, you're talking about top executives.' So some students are meeting for breakfast, some have met on the weekends and in the evenings, or for lunch ... I have to say it, I'm a little jealous. I didn't get this [opportunity] when I was working on my MBA," Nelson laughs.

But the program doesn't end with a mentoring session. Students are required, after every meeting, to make an entry in an online journal. Nelson says, "The documentation gives me evidence that they are still meeting, but more importantly requires students to reflect, and it's going to stick with them."

Speaking with Nelson gives one the impression that the Leadership Fellows is a long-established program, but really, the first iteration, with four students, took place in the spring of 2013. The program, as it is currently structured, Nelson kicked-off in the fall of 2014, having arrived herself in Alaska and at UAA only a year before.

The first cohort of fifteen students is, at publication, wrapping up their first year. Included in that cohort are Bridgette Coleman, an undergraduate student double majoring in Business Management and Marketing, and Nick Morrill, an MBA student with an emphasis in General Management. At press time, neither student had finished the program in its entirety, but their feedback was already positive.

Morrill says: "The Leadership Fellows program has been an amazing asset in both my education and career. Having the opportunity to meet with a leader in my preferred field (nonprofit)...