One of the great things that the College Of Design provides for its student is The Mentor Program in which they match students with a mentor that works in their field of interest. This program allows juniors and seniors to gain personal direction, knowledge, and understanding about the industry they will be working in before actually entering it.

The awesome thing about the 5-month program is that it has minimal structure; students and mentors get to choose what they will be covering and when they will meet up. Students typically meet with their mentors once or twice a month and go over the specific topics they decided upon; these topics vary and include anything from networking, building a portfolio, and whatever else the mentor and student find necessary.

My mentor is a business owner who gets to travel around the world and work in design management. I am actually meeting with my mentor today, Wednesday, February 1st. We are planning to get together at the Mall of America to grab lunch as well as to visit stores. We are going to go to stores, which are doing well, and store that are doing not so well. Observing their store layout and displays, she will be developing my visual merchandising skills by teaching me how to understand which tactics work and which don't. I am very excited to venture out and learn from someone inside the field.

Store windows will be just one of the things we will be observing
(photo credit: http://display-stand-info.blogspot.com/2011/10/massor-av-tydligt-anvnd-props.html)

Sasenka - Retail Merchandising