April 29, 2026
The SCI Mentorship Program held its first SCI Mentorship Picnic on April 10, allowing mentees and mentors to come together face-to-face to celebrate their partnerships as the semester comes to a close.
Most mentee and mentor pairs communicate primarily virtually; the picnic allowed many to meet in-person for the very first time. Throughout the picnic mentorship matches met in a flurry of hugs and excited conversation, giving all involved a chance to put a face to a name and meet others in the same program, promoting further connections.
SCI’s Mentorship Program began in 2022 and has grown to be one of the largest school mentorship programs on Pitt’s campus. The program currently has an impressive number of 177 participants, making up 112 mentees and 65 mentors.
Being able to utilize the mentorship program throughout the year is invaluable to students. Jonathan Hanobik (CS ’18, ’23G) became chair of the SCI Alumni Board mentorship committee in Summer 2025. Hanobik said SCI having its own mentorship program is extremely important.
“Both the industry and academia are constantly evolving. Having someone to reach out to and run your questions by is important,” Hanobik said. “It’s just nice to have someone in your corner and someone to look to. If you don’t have that, you can feel like you’re going without a plan.”
Hanobik, who was a mentee while he attended SCI, has also mentored a group of his own mentees, who attended the picnic as well to celebrate the program.
“I’m really fortunate that I had at the picnic with a bunch of my mentees and got to see their progression from sophomore to senior to graduating and keeping in touch,” Hanobik said.
The picnic emphasizes the cyclical nature of the mentorship program, which allows it to keep growing as successful mentees become mentors themselves. Hanobik said that is just one of the reasons that the program is so important.
“I think it’s really a good way to connect alumni and SCI students. I hope the students who are mentees now become mentors in the future,” Hanobik said.
Hanobik explained since taking over as a chair of the program he has tried to put feedback from participants into effect. One part of this feedback was about the goals section of Pitt Commons, the platform used to facilitate the program. Hanobik said many participants in the mentorship program felt that the goals seemed like a homework assignment.
“I took that feedback and talked it over with other people,” Hanobik said. “I decided the make the goals optional so that people who thrive based on structure and goals could utilize them, but people who wanted to talk to someone when they felt necessary could also do so.”
These changes seem to have made an impact on all as the picnic showed the evidence of many satisfied mentorship matches. Since its start in 2022, the Mentorship Program now has over 400 matches in total and seems to be set to continue to expand as more students and mentors get involved.