Alumni

• Mentor Program

Planting the Seed

As students get matched with mentors earlier than ever, a former mentee-turned- mentor follows her own career to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

By Cara Jepsen ’86

When Eliza Topalski Fournier ’98 was a freshman at Lake Forest College, she had no idea she would eventually find a job as coordinator of school and community gardening at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. But forging a relationship through the College’s Mentor Program helped her find her way there.

“I went to college not knowing what I would do, but assuming I would do business or something like that,” says Fournier, who grew up in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin and learned about the College from her mother, Pence Revington ’72. “I tried a little bit of everything—women’s hockey, lifeguard training, Habitat for Humanity, the ambassadors program.

“I was a little blind to my options,” she continues. “Some people in college are more driven and know what they want—but I didn’t.”

Fournier took classes from almost every department—biology, sociology, politics, economics, English, and communications, to name a few—before settling on a major in environmental studies. During her sophomore year, she decided to sign up for the College’s Mentor Program, which falls under the auspices of the Career Advancement Center. It pairs students with alumni and friends of the College based on their professional fields. Today over 500 alumni stay connected to Lake Forest College through the program, in which they share their experiences and help students develop professional skills and map out their career plans.

“My friends said, ‘Don’t bother, there’s not a lot of environmental studies people,’” says Fournier, who always spent her summers gardening and working as a lifeguard. “The major was kind of new at that point, and they said no one was going to fit me anyway. But I thought I’d sign up for it, since I was signing up for everything else anyway.”

She was paired with Betsey Starinchak Frank ’88, who was working in the interpretation department at the Shedd Aquarium. The job involved educating the public, which included everything from making signs to training volunteers. “I thought, well, the museum is interested in conservation and the environment in general—I thought it sounded relatively close,” Fournier says. “And if I didn’t want to do interpretation, she might know of other things.”

Frank was a biology major, and currently runs her own consulting firm. “I wanted to provide an opportunity within the workplace setting I was in for Lake Forest College students,” she says. “I wasn’t seeing them getting the same kind of experience I wanted to share with them. At the time I majored in biology, I felt that students were either being groomed to work at Abbott Labs or they were going to be doctors. I didn’t think there were alternative types of careers in biology. I wanted to make sure that they knew there were other options.”

That’s been the goal of the program in recent years, says the Mentor Program’s coordinator, Megan Mieling. This fall, for the first time, freshman and sophomores are being encouraged to join the two-semester program, in which students hone in on their the goals in the fall, get matched in November, and will attend a social where they can practice their networking skills. By spring they’ll be prepared to meet with their mentors and optimize their time together. So students, introduced to their mentors earlier in their college experience, get a head start on their career search.

Fournier and Frank first met at a coffee shop in Chicago’s Lincoln Park to get to know each other and discuss their goals. “It was neat to see people who were living in the city and having kids there,” says Fournier. “And Betsey was really open about her Lake Forest experience and her career and what it took her to get where she was.”

They met a few more times, forging a strong relationship. “It was so valuable to hear somebody else’s perspective, who had gone to Lake Forest College and see what they’re doing now,” she says. “Betsey has had an interesting career path too. It made me see that if you go to Lake Forest, there are tons of career options that are open to you.”

There’s a natural camaraderie that develops between students and alumni, says Mieling. “The connection is there because the students are feeling the excitement and anxiety that comes along with graduating, and the mentor has been there and can share how they got through it. It’s important that they’re willing to listen to the student and share their ups and downs with them. The students feel like they can relate to that. It’s a natural common ground that they share, and it’s magnified by the connection to the College.”

Fournier made the most of her time with Frank. “I had asked Betsey, do you think it’s possible for me to work at the Shedd, doing anything. If I didn’t want to do interpretation, I thought she might know of other things,” she says. Frank helped steer Fournier towards a summer internship taking care of the Shedd Aquarium’s gardens. “That’s where I got more of the gardening bug,” Fournier says. “That kind of fueled the fire. Everything else kind of built on that.

“I knew then that whatever job I had would have to include gardening. I’m hyperactive, and sitting at a desk is very difficult for me.”

After graduation, Fournier earned a Master’s in Public Affairs at Indiana University, where she specialized in urban management. She did a brief stint at the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development in Chicago (“I was sitting at a desk, going crazy”), before finding an online listing for the Botanic Garden job (interestingly, she’s never met Lake Forest College trustee Barbara Carr, who’s the president and CEO of the Botanic Garden).

Fournier’s department serves as a resource for school and community gardens, and has assisted over 200 gardens in the past four years. Last summer she spent plenty of time outside, overseeing operations at high school gardens in North Chicago and on Chicago’s West Side. 

“Typically someone in my job would have a horticulture degree from a four-year agricultural school,” she says. “I’ve found that a lot of people who went to big colleges don’t have the same skills I do in terms of reading, public speaking and that kind of thing—they have strictly horticulture background, and I didn’t get that...But you can pick up those skills along the way, or get a master’s degree. But I think having that basis in everything makes you a more marketable employee—and a well-rounded citizen, frankly.”

Last spring, Fournier briefly served as a mentor for Sara Moriyama ’05, who majored in environmental studies. They met once, spoke on the phone a few times and kept in touch via e-mail. She shared her own graduate school experience with Moriyama, and supported her decision to go to Columbia University this fall for an MPA. “I’m glad I went [to graduate school] right after college, because that way I was done with it. It’s hard to commit to going to school full time later in your career,” says Fournier. “And she seems pretty sure environmental policy and public policy are what she wants to study.”

“I was already kind of thinking about graduate school, but I didn’t know anybody who was actually in the field,” says Moriyama. “She told me what it was—not only about her job but grad school.”
 Moriyama feels comfortable contacting her with questions during—or after—graduate school. “Maybe when I try to look for a job, she may have some advice,” she says.

Fournier, who cultivates a small flower and vegetable garden outside the Chicago condominium she shares with husband David Fournier ’97, says she still sees Frank. “I’ll see her at Homecoming and at different College events around the city sometimes too,” says Fournier. “It’s great to tell her where I’m going and where I’ve been.”

“The relationship doesn’t end [with graduation],” says Frank, who has mentored several students over the years. “If the mentor is smart, they shouldn’t let it.

“It’s always good to have a positive relationship and good contacts and be part of the network. When all of these women become CEO’s, I’m going to ask them for jobs.”

Cara Jepsen ’86 is a Chicago-based freelance writer.