By Christopher Bower
Twenty years ago, Luis Martinez was wrapping up his time as a mentor in the very first cohort of the UCLA Housing and Hospitality (H&H) Mentoring Program, unsure of where this venture would take him.
“We were going into the unknown,” Martinez, assistant director, UCLA Dining, said of the annual eight-month professional development opportunity that aims to provide H&H team members with the knowledge they need to pursue fruitful careers in the department and at UCLA.
Today, things are a little less unknown. The program has graduated more than 300 team members, including 11 mentees who completed the program and were honored on June 7, and is largely unchanged since its inception. The eight-month course pairs mentees with senior UCLA staff members who help guide them through the process. Mentees attend workshops, do group presentations and learn other professional development skills to improve their value as employees.
Although many of the mentors from Martinez’ original cohort have retired, Martinez is still at UCLA and continues to mentor, with this year’s cohort marking his 12th session. He says he keeps coming back because it’s “gratifying” to see his mentees over the years grow and thrive, and emphasizes the importance of mentees getting out of their comfort zone.
“It’s perfectly okay to take risks and feel uncomfortable. That effort and time is paid out by growth.”
While that growth has often resulted in future promotions for mentees, the program’s director Carol Huang stresses that is not the sole purpose of the experience.
“It’s a more holistic view,” Huang said. “At the end of the program, you are a better person, whether or not you get a promotion.”
“Better person” in this case means a more well-rounded and proficient employee, one who has taken the skills they’ve acquired to not just get a new job, but to become a more desirable candidate for any future job.
Over the past five years of her involvement with the popular program, Huang has repeatedly watched mentees “come out of their shells” and seen confidence instilled in them by the end of the program each spring.
“It brings me joy and fulfillment, it really does,” Huang said. “These mentees are the leaders of tomorrow for the university.”
And there is perhaps no better example of this than Lus Huitron, a mentee from the 2016-17 cohort who now works alongside Huang to help facilitate the program.
“I saw they were providing a service and I wanted that, to help people,” Huitron said.
Inspired by the work that H&H Training and Organizational Development was doing, Huitron applied and completed the program, where she “developed an information bank and understood what it meant to be” in that type of career.
Huitron rejoined the mentoring program as a facilitator about a year after being a mentee and now on the other side of the table, she recognizes her unique position.
“I know what it means, all the excitement and ambition they’re feeling, because I was there, I’ve been on that emotional journey,” Huitron said. “I’m able to provide and lend myself as a resource to them, and I love it.”
Christopher Bower is a graduate of the 2022-23 H&H Mentoring Program. An aspiring university communicator, Bower holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. He also wrote and published a first-person account of his experience in the program.
