Debbie Young (right) from the Craig School of Business meets with
several business students to discuss their internship experiences.
Entrepreneurship student Anmmar Alsaggaf (left) discussed his
experience with London Properties, where he is an intern for the
fall semester.
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

The Craig School of Business’ new Business Mentorship Program was created to give business students an opportunity to network and meet with professionals. The new program is a separate entity from the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneur Mentorship Program.

The new Business Mentorship Program was established in January of 2011 by director Debbie Young. The program is for business or pre-business majors and is a one-unit course. The program consists of student members and mentors. The mentors are either a business person or an alumnus.

The mentors meet with the students four times throughout the semester. The meetings are two hours long and at the end of the semester each student must have completed eight hours of meeting time. The program also creates connections for the students in the Fresno business community. Students can find job openings or search other industries that are hiring.

The new program grew out of the success from the internship program. Students had asked Young for a mentorship program. Young focused on how the university can help the students in preparations for their career planning. The mentors are to assist students with their career and creating connections for employment.

“My dream is that the mentorship program is going to feed into the internship program. So students will do a mentorship their freshman or sophomore year and their junior or senior year they will begin their internship,” Young said. Young is also the director of internships for the business school.

“I believe that the mentorship program is what I call a Craig connection because we are the Craig School of Business. It connects you with the local business community,” Young said.

Sheryl Yardumian is a mentor for the new program. Yardumian attended Penn State University and graduated with a B.S. in accounting in May of 1988. Yardumian is an audit partner in a local CPA firm. Yardumian first heard about the new program when she was on the board for the Fresno State Alumni and Friends for the Craig School of Business. After Yardumian served the board, she joined the new program.

“The program is about helping our young students learn more about the workplace and their selected career so they can make an educated decision about what they want to do and where to do it when they graduate,” Yardumian said.

Ariana Zamudio is a senior at Fresno State and is majoring in business administration. Zamudio, 25, enrolled in the new program to gain experience and knowledge of what a CPA does and also to assist her decision in which field of accounting Zamudio wants to pursue.

Zamudio received an email from Young about the new program and decided to enroll. “I wanted to have support and mainly guidance for my long-term career goal in the accounting field. What better advice than coming from a professional CPA Sheryl Yardumian?” Zamudio said.

Zamudio has accomplished her goal to gain the experience and the opportunity to be a part of an audit team at her mentors CPA firm.

The new Business Mentorship Program gives students the opportunity to have a mentor to work with on a one-on-one basis and to get advice on the students’ career paths and strategies on finding employment, which many students who graduate are having a difficult time doing.