Bentley female students were on hand to meet mentors from the Network of Executive Women (NEW) at the second annual kick-off event for the NEW Horizons College Mentoring Program, held this fall at the Marriot Hotel in Newton, Mass.

The NEW Horizons Mentoring Group aims to create a mentoring program that is sustainable and provides value to the student, the mentor and the consumer packaged goods and retail industry. This year the program has doubled in the number of mentees and now includes MBA students.

Through the program, each student is assigned a NEW mentor. The initiative also includes free attendance to New England Regional Networking Events, held in fall 2010 and upcoming in April 2011, and participation in two development sessions. Students will also learn the art of networking, including personal and professional benefits, and build a resource of contacts for future networking. Additionally, there are a number of programs held throughout the year, such as Dress for Success.

The evening prior to the kick-off event, students were introduced to New England Region committee members, and were presented with a welcome package.

Bentley is a core partner school for NEW on-campus initiatives, as well as their mentor program.  Alyssa Hammond, associate director of Undergraduate Career Services at Bentley, developed the organization's first-ever on-campus panel, which consisted of NEW members from Kraft Foods, Ocean Spray, Shaw's Supermarket, CVS Caremark, Hannaford, Johnson O'Hare, and Garelick Farms. The program was held last spring at Bentley.

The Network of Executive Women has more than 220 members and is supported by more than 400 corporations and more than 50 corporate sponsors. NEW members are a cross-section of the retail/consumer goods industry, representing executive level and emerging leaders from retailers including grocery, chain drug, mass retail, wholesalers, club store retailers, manufacturers, consultants, sales agencies, associations, universities and media.