UGA Mentor Program celebrates successful first year
The UGA Mentor Program, the University of Georgia’s first comprehensive mentorship initiative, allows students to form meaningful mentoring relationships with experienced UGA alumni. The program launched on August 21, 2019, and thanks to the support of the university community, it far exceeded many of its inaugural goals. Since the program’s launch, over 2,000 students and 2,400 mentors have registered and more than 1,500 mentoring relationships have been created.
Over the past year, students have reported many positive results from joining the UGA Mentor Program. Over 97% of mentees indicated gaining an appreciation for mentoring as a personal and professional development tool. A mentee explained, “My mentor really helped me gain an understanding of how to start preparing for life beyond the classroom.” As a result of participating in the UGA Mentor Program, 95% of mentors agree that their experience with the program inspired them to strengthen their relationship with the university. One mentor said, “I feel a closer tie to the university and my impact on the student body there.”
With a new academic year starting, the program is seeking new participants–both students and alumni. As we navigate an uncertain future, the UGA Mentor Program will continue providing students with an avenue to build professional and personal networks, explore career interests, and strengthen the Bulldog community while fostering a culture of mentoring across the university. For more information and to get involved, please visit mentor.uga.edu.
About the UGA Mentor Program
The UGA Mentor Program, an initiative of President Jere W. Morehead, was established in 2019 to connect students and alumni. Students complete a mentoring orientation session and are granted access to a database of alumni who have committed to mentoring a student for a 16-week period. Students search for and select a mentor based on their profile in the database. When a mentoring pair is established, the student benefits from the wisdom shared by a graduate who has taken the journey they are now navigating. Alumni enjoy the opportunity to invest in the next generation and see students’ dreams take root. To learn more, visit mentor.uga.com. Connecting the Bulldog family. That’s our commitment.




For many Georgia fans, it may seem a little cruel that in the Razorbacks’ first season under head coach Sam Pittman— beloved former offensive line coach for UGA—they would open their season against the formidable Bulldogs. Blame COVID-19 if you want, but the Dawgs should walk into and out of Fayetteville comfortably, as the Razorbacks have lost 19 consecutive SEC games and lost several key players on a defense that finished last year ranked 110th in total defense.
The unchecked UT dominance of the 90s has waned ever since Verron Haynes planted a hobnail boot into the checkered end zone of Neyland Stadium: Georgia is 13-6 against the Vols since 2001, and our last three contests have been decided by an average of 32 points. That said, after last season’s loss to the Dawgs, Tennessee reeled off a 6-1 record—an impressive feat after early season losses to BYU and Georgia State. If Jeremy Pruitt has gotten the Volunteers to turn a corner, Tennessee could give UGA much more of a game this go-round. But without the time and structure of the typical offseason where that corner-turning usually occurs…
After a 10-3 year in 2018, Mark Stoops’ Wildcats regressed a bit in 2019 with a 7-5 record. This was mostly expected, as the Cats lost a number of all-timers on both sides of the ball to the NFL Draft. Kentucky loses another playmaker this year in Lynn Bowden, the dynamic WR/QB who gave defenses fits. Well, MOST defenses: Georgia handled Bowden and Kentucky in a miserable, soggy game in 2019. This game lines up as a classic “trap game” for the Dawgs, who will be coming off of an undoubtedly grueling, highly anticipated game against the Tide and could overlook the ‘Cats as they look ahead to the bye week and the Gators after that.
Unfortunately, this new schedule doesn’t allow the Georgia-Florida game to fall directly on Halloween, which always feels like the appropriate time for this match: hordes of lizard creatures assemble, draped in rags of garish orange and blue. The good guys in red and black will fight to extend Georgia’s win streak to 4, which would be the longest streak in this series in over a decade. Dan Mullen has steadily improved the Gators since his arrival in 2018, and our last game was decided by a single touchdown, so this figures to be yet another hotly contested match on the bank of the St. Johns River.
Since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012, the Tigers have only managed one win in eight games against the Bulldogs. But those games all saw either Gary Pinkel or Barry Odom at the helm for Mizzou, and now head coach Eli Drinkwitz will lead the Tigers. Drinkwitz served in various assistant roles for over a decade at a variety of schools before taking over the Appalachian State Mountaineers last season. In his one season at App State, his team set a Sun Belt record for wins (12), won the conference and became the first-ever Sun Belt program to earn a Top 20 ranking in the AP poll.
One of the more exciting SEC developments in the last year was Mike Leach’s arrival in Starkville. This is actually Leach’s second stint in the conference—he was Kentucky’s offensive coordinator/QB coach from 1997-1998, when he and head coach Hal Mumme turned quarterback Tim Couch into a no. 1 NFL Draft pick (you read that right). It remains to be seen how well Leach’s prolific offense translates to the modern-day SEC, but even without his high-flying scheme, MSU already had senior running back Kylin Hill, the SEC’s leading rusher in 2019. And Leach’s new defensive coordinator, Zach Arnett, led a San Diego State defense that, over the last two seasons, was among the nation’s best in multiple categories. Don’t be surprised if this game gives us some trouble.
















