I am pleased to be discussing another exciting initiative of the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce. The Manhattan Professional Mentorship Program was created as we saw the importance, desire and need for our young professionals and entrepreneurs to develop relationships with diverse and experienced community members to help them reach their full potential through personal and professional development.
This need closely aligned with a major goal of our new program, Established Business Leaders, which help established business leaders stay engaged in the community through social networking, mentoring, advocacy, and educational opportunities. With this in mind, the Manhattan Professional Mentorship Program is co-sponsored by Hype and Spark. Hype is our rebranded young professionals organization, designed to connect, engage and develop young professionals in order to encourage a more vibrant, diverse and desirable Manhattan. Spark is a nonprofit organization that serves as a regional entrepreneurship support organization for entrepreneurs and emerging business owners.
The Manhattan Professional Mentorship Program will help facilitate relationships between mentors and mentees though the relationships will ultimately be managed by the mentor/mentee, so time-commitment may be flexible. Mentor opportunities are available to anyone as we recognize the diverse needs of our mentees. Interested mentors may sign up here. These submissions will be used to create mentor profiles. As a benefit of being a Hype member, these mentor profiles will only be accessible to Hype members or interested Spark mentees.
We believe this program will be successful as we see a mutual interest in these relationships and continued interest around Hype's monthly event, Lattes with Leadership, occurring the third Tuesday of the month. At this event, diverse business and community leaders share their personal story of success and lessons they have learned while offering inspiration and advice to young professionals.
We need your help.
If you are interested in being a Mentor, please fill out sign-up form to better understand your areas of interest and availability for mentorship. We would like to see more Mentor interest before officially launching the program in October. If you have any questions about this program, please reach out to Amber Wilhelm at the Chamber.