Mentor Match: Helping young journalists to succeed
BY ZELA CHIN
In the summer of 2015, a recent university graduate, Gavin Huang, moved to Korea for adventure. The Chinese American had received a fellowship as a copyeditor for the Korea JoongAng Daily, the local partner of the New York Times. Not too long, he was promoted to business editor, and then national desk editor.
A veteran AAJA member suggested that he apply for the inaugural Mentor Match program in 2018. The year long program pairs students and young journalists with seasoned veterans for career and professional advice.
The career coaches at the N3Con media conference in May 2018 taught Gavin that a mentor is a neutral party who listens to your problems when you don’t want to speak with colleagues. Taking that advice to heart, Gavin reached out to his mentor when he was negotiating a job offer from Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post last summer.
Through the Mentor Match program, Gavin had been paired with Joon-Nie Lau, a veteran of the Singapore news industry, who had about 10 years of experience mentoring young journalists.
“It took me 10 years to come to a conclusion, and if I can help someone reach that conclusion a lot faster…there’s no point in reinventing the wheel,” said Lau.
She advised Gavin that during salary negotiations, he should ask: what grade is he coming in at? what is the salary range? Because if a person gets the high end of a salary range then he must get a promotion to get a salary increase. She also advised him to ask about relocation packages and housing allowances. He said, “Joon-Nie helped me understand my value in a new market.”
A couple of months later, Gavin moved to Hong Kong. He works as a commissioning editor for Goldthread, a video-heavy culture publication from the SCMP. Gavin and Joon-Nie were one of the 16 Mentor Match pairs in Asia last year.
In 2019, the Asia chapter joined the national organisation to launch a bigger and better Mentor Match program. Mentors and mentees were matched based on geography, career interests, and gender. This year we have 92 pairs. The participants hail from across the U.S. and Asia, and even as far as Sweden and Lebanon. Asia members make up about 23% of the matches.
Ideally, the pairs maintain consistent contact throughout the year through phone calls, online interactions, and in-person meetings, if possible. And they have opportunities to meet at the AAJA media conferences: N3Con in Hong Kong, May 30 to June 2, and National Convention in Atlanta, July 31 to August 3.
The program is led by Zela Chin, Executive Vice President of the Asia chapter, Hannah Bae, former Vice President of the Seoul sub-chapter and current president of AAJA-NY, and Ruth Liao, of AAJA-Seattle.
The pairs are supported by monthly conference calls to troubleshoot problems and provide career counselling. The program is designed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine, a career coach and AAJA member.
“AAJA has the best structured mentoring program,” said Lau, “it’s highly managed and lots of support for mentees and mentors.” 🗨️
Zela Chin is executive vice president of the Asia chapter, Asian American Journalists Association.
