Monrovia – The special guest speaker of the Mentorship and Career Development Program launched by the AME University Alumni Association, Mr. David Woods Baysah has urged prospective graduates and students of the university to uphold the integrity and improve their capacities through mentorship, adding that this will lead them to seek value over money.
Speaking in Monrovia on the AMEU campus on Camp Johnson Road, Monrovia, Mr. Baysah stressed that credential alone is not enough to get a well-paid job; therefore, graduates must have extra qualities.
“Always seek value over money. Look for a place where you will learn and not a place to get money,” Baysah urged the audience that included prospective graduates and students.
“If you graduate from college, your priority should not be making money, you priority should be increasing your value, because if you run after money, you will end up being poor, but if you increase your value, you will be rich.”
These values, according to him, can only be achieved through mentorship, emphasizing that mentorship is one of the valuable instruments in human history that is being ignored.
He said it is important to have a mentor who can help young professionals in their studies and their future career development.
“You can gain all the knowledge and have all the skills, and if you don’t know people who know people, then you know nobody,” Mr. Baysah said.
He maintained that those opting for mentorship must look for potential qualities that will suit their career developments.
These equalities must be the embodiment of a person with experience, knowledge, connection, and integrity, he said.
“When you choose a mentor, choose well, because mentors will have influence over you,” Mr. Baysah told the prospective graduates.
He said when students are mentored prior to leaving college, they will carry additional values and qualities at their respective workplaces, which would provide them good incentives.
He also urged the students to seek specialization over generalization to bring special skills that the country will need, adding that going forward, prospective graduates must also be humble and patience to ensure they get more opportunities.
For his part, the President of the AMEU Alumni Association Emmanuel Tieh Delamy said the occasion with the 20th graduation class marks a connection between the students and the alumni after their graduation.
“It was important that alumni [association] come in to help develop students’ skills through this career day program,” Delamy said, while promising continued mentorship for the students.
“We will have alumni with different expertise who will be coming on campus to prepare you students for the job.”
He said the career development and mentorship program will enable students build a connection with others who are already in professional areas.
According to the president of the AMEUAA, there are students on campus with lots of potential, which should be natured through mentorship to bring them to the limelight.
“This mentorship development will prepare you to be able to find a job. We will have training — for example, business development, so that when you are out of university, you can be able to start your own business instead of looking for job,” he added.
He said the move is based on research which has proven that several university graduates are unable to sit interviews or to write curriculum vitae properly.
Mr. Delamy further stressed that if alumni of the university with expertise in specific areas mentor students, it will help prepare them for the job market after graduation.
Also, at the launch, two financial experts discussed Liberia’s fiscal monitoring policies. The day also saw the official opening of the AMEU Alumni Association new office on the Camp Johnson Road’s campus of the university.