Protégé Chattanooga

Last August, Jason approached me about applying for the 2015-2016 Protégé Chattanooga mentorship program through the Young Professionals Association of Chattanooga (YPAC). I hadn’t heard of this program before, so I quickly got online to research and learn more about it.  It didn’t take me long to decide that it was right for me.

Since moving to Chattanooga in 2009, I have joined different clubs and programs in hopes of meeting people in the area and learning more about the different opportunities that the city has to offer young professionals.  The Protégé Chattanooga program is unique in that it brings a small group of young professionals together to meet business leaders in the community.  Without this program, I may have never gotten to meet these area leaders.

The program was structured with one mentor meeting a month for eight months. The Protégé group the week prior carefully planned each meeting by researching the mentor and carefully tailoring questions to ask.  Each mentor meeting lasted anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on the mentor’s schedule.  The meeting locations were also unique to that mentor and even included the mayor’s boardroom.

With graduation this week, I’m really excited to have participated in this program.  The other participants came from diverse backgrounds and industries, and I hope to stay connected in the future.