January—National Mentoring Month in the United States—brings the launch of a new complement to the Northwestern Network Mentorship Program. The Affinity Leaders and Learners (ALL) Mentorship Program strives to create a unique opportunity for undergraduate students seeking identity-based mentorship.

The Northwestern Network is piloting this first run of the program for our Black, Asian and Asian American, and LGBTQ+ students and alumni. The ALL Program has been created in partnership with the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA), Northwestern University Asian and Asian American Alumni (NU-A5), and Northwestern University Pride Alumni Club (NUPAC) with the hope to extend the program to include more underrepresented groups in the future.

In this episode, we sit down with the three club liaisons to dive into the details of the program and the impact mentoring has had on their careers and lives.

To learn more about the program and how to register please visit mentor.northwestern.edu/programs/affinity.

Our liaisons, from left to right:

Evan Frost '17 is an assistant director on the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's annual fundraising team and a graduate of the School of Education and Social Policy (#SESPLove). Before the pandemic you could often find him cheering on the 'Cats at Ryan Field or commuting to and from the holds pickup at your nearest Chicago Public Library branch.

Julian Hill '08 is a community organizer, first, and a clinical teaching fellow with the Georgetown University Law Center's Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic, second. He graduated from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences where he studied philosophy. Following Northwestern, he taught high school Spanish with Teach for America in the Los Angeles region before backpacking in Latin America, farming in Uganda, and attending Harvard Law School for his JD.

Brad Grams '17 MA is the principal White House liaison for Environmental Protection Budgeting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Office of the Chief Financial Officer, where he leads the formulation of the agency's budget with its senior leaders, as well as The White House and Congress. Outside of his EPA work, Brad is an adjunct lecturer in Northwestern University's School of Professional Studies, where he focuses on research and program evaluation methods in the public sector, and leads their Public Policy and Administration Mentorship Program.