Building Bridges

How a Mentoring Program Connected a Large Alumni Community

In 2012, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship program was at a unique moment in its history as the alumni community had grown to over 400 leaders and emerging leaders spanning two generations. Working in close consultation with Rae, herself an alumna of the esteemed program promoting excellence in Jewish professional leadership, the Wexner Foundation created a Mentoring Program to leverage the deep and diverse talents of past participants. The Program has provided a framework for continuing support of Wexner alumni, bolstered by content-rich, personalized learning. The impact of the mentoring program has been the strengthening of individual leaders and organizations and the fields they affect, and the creation of a sustainable program structure for alumni to give back to the Jewish world with the skill sets and knowledge they received as Wexner Fellows.

“We selected Rae Ringel for this five-year position because of her unique talent as an intuitive and highly skilled program developer, manager, and coach. She brings rich experience from other settings which add immeasurably to our Foundations’ work. Eight months into the program, the forty participants have expressed enormous gratitude to The Wexner Foundation and to Rae in particular for her orientation, training, critical thinking and constructive guidance. She also serves as an excellent role model for the participants because of her presence, poise, personality and wisdom.”