Ryan Smith is an Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University, focused on Hospitality and Tourism. Prior to San Francisco State, he taught in Hong Kong, South Korea, and at the University of Houston. Most importantly, he’s faculty lead for the SFSU Lam College of Business Mentorship Program. 

Learn more about how the program is impacting students today and how to get more involved.

On Alumni Generosity

[2:15] Alumni in general love giving back to the college. Basically they just wanna feel like they can do something, and our students need that support. And so, a lot of the students that have done this mentorship program have really benefited greatly in terms of improving their confidence level overall, as well as kind of getting ready for the workforce. And the alumni also love it.

On Participation Levels

[10:19] This semester, we have roughly 80 students. And from a mentor standpoint, we have about 55. Some mentors want to pair with more students, so the numbers work out pretty well for us at this point.

On Time Commitment

[11:07] What we ask mentors to dedicate is roughly around five hours. So, three different times over the course of the semester, with three outcomes that you're supposed to kind of run away with. Of course there are mentors, when you get paired with a student that you really want to help, they'll generally give more time.

On New Campus Initiatives

[16:07] Innovation and entrepreneurship, for example, are running kind of an incubator where students basically take a concept and bring it to life– make it to a point where you're selling a pitch deck, Like a Shark Tank-type series. And I think this year that was last year, and next year they're actually going to prototype.

On SFSU’s Student Training Restaurant

The biggest takeaway is just building confidence and talking to strangers and being able to deal with guests in general. At the end of the day, are you gonna carry plates when you go in the future? Most likely not only in your house, but, taking away those things, you don't really think about the fact that you're learning those valuable takeaways.

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