More than 200 sophomore business students connected with mentors through one-on-one relationships, career programming and peer-led leadership opportunities.
May 28, 2026
By Winter Harris
Writer, Neeley Communications
Built to help sophomore business students gain real-world guidance beyond the classroom, the TCU Neeley Mentorship Program expanded significantly this year, creating more opportunities for students to connect with alumni mentors through one-on-one relationships, career programming and peer-led leadership development.
“The primary focus is on building a one-on-one relationship with your mentor,” said Alex Clarkson, a sophomore majoring in marketing and management in the program. “There’s a shared level of experience that makes the program feel more relatable and collaborative.”
This year, the Neeley Mentorship Program matched more than 200 sophomore mentees with 153 active alumni mentors, representing a 66 percent increase in student participation and a 17 percent growth in mentor enrollment. The program now serves nearly one-quarter of the entire sophomore class.
Applications for the next Neeley Mentorship Program cohort will open in the fall semester. Students and mentors interested in participating can learn more through the Neeley Mentorship Program webpage, which outlines program details, expectations and opportunities to get involved.
Founded and sustained by students, the program connects successful mentors, who are frequently alumni, with sophomore business students at a pivotal time in their professional development journeys. The 10-week spring program offers weekly learning sessions, alumni career panels and one-on-one mentorship from professionals across industries. The curriculum is created and delivered by a board of TCU junior and senior business students who were mentees as sophomores.
Growth also expanded the program’s offerings. This year, students participated in pickleball outings, networking nights and free professional headshots.
The Neeley Mentorship Program operates as a cycle of mentorship and student leadership. Mentees become student leaders, and student leaders become mentors. Aidan Clark ’24 is currently an account protégé at Crawford Global Technical Services in San Francisco. While studying finance and accounting at Neeley, he went through the program as a mentee and returned this year to mentor students of his own.
"I'm proud to support students the same way the Neeley community supported me," Clark said.
He credits the program's evolution for much of its impact, pointing to its redesign around specific majors and career tracks as a turning point.
"The cohort approach enables the program to pair mentees with mentors who have specific experience in a student's area of interest," Clark said.
The impact is equally clear for current students. For Drew Atiyeh, a junior majoring in finance and accounting, the Neeley Mentorship Program arrived at a turning point. After a difficult sophomore year, his mentor Jill McKean Bilby ’00 (’08 MBA), a 26-year professional in the equipment finance industry, helped rebuild his confidence one conversation at a time.
"By the time I was sitting in interviews, I carried a confidence that I know came directly from her belief in me," Atiyeh said.
Their relationship outlasted the program’s 10 weeks. Atiyeh later organized a panel bringing Bilby and her industry peers to campus, opening a door to an industry most Neeley students had never considered.
"She will always be a mentor to me, but I can now proudly call her a friend," he said.
Next year, Atiyeh takes on the role of student director, carrying forward the tradition on which the program was built. "I wanted every mentee who came after me to have an experience just as powerful as mine," he said.
For students like Clarkson, those kinds of long-term relationships reflect what continues to set the mentorship program apart: access to alumni who offer not only career advice, but perspective shaped by experience.
Clarkson said conversations with his mentor, Vic Drabicky ’01, founder of January Digital, centered less on a traditional career roadmap and more on understanding how professional paths evolve over time. Drabicky shared lessons from a career journey that moved from freelance writing to global marketing roles at J.Crew and Tory Burch before launching his own marketing agency.
“My hope in mentoring is that I could give students a bit of the head start that I didn’t have,” Drabicky said.
