Why Every Student Needs a Mentor

Our founder, Ted Bozarth, is the guest on the newest episode of Count Me In, the podcast of the Institute of Management Accountants. It went up on August 17th and runs about 29 minutes. Press play:

Prefer your own app? It's episode 367, and Count Me In is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else you get podcasts.

What they talk about

The conversation traces the road from a career in information technology and supply chain work to starting a mentorship organization for college students — what actually prompted it, and why that particular problem was the one worth spending retirement on.

Along the way:

• Where the SetFire name came from, which is a better story than most people expect.
• Why the leap from college into adulthood and business is the moment guidance matters most, and the moment students are least likely to have any.
• How The Sparks Mentorship Program actually works — pairing students with professionals who have already done the job, and connecting them to practical tools, real-world support, and professional networks.
• How members of the Institute of Management Accountants can mentor a student through the partnership between the two organizations.

Why it's worth 29 minutes

One number from the Gallup-Purdue Index, which asked nearly 30,000 college graduates about their experience: only 22% strongly agreed with the sentence I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams.

Not "knew someone in the industry." Not "had a professor I liked." A mentor, in their corner, pointed at the thing they wanted. Fewer than one in four.

That gap is the whole reason this organization exists, and it's most of what the episode is about.

If you're a student, it will tell you what to go looking for. If you've spent a career learning things the hard way, it will tell you what those lessons are worth to somebody twenty years behind you.

Thank you to the team at Count Me In for having us.

From all of us at SetFire Foundation.