Matt McPherson ’17, a finance major and entrepreneurship minor, turned to the alumni-mentoring database about six months ago after completing a summer internship at DOT Foods, Inc., the nation’s largest food redistributor.

“I dealt a lot with redistribution and logistics in my internship and I wanted someone to connect with to learn more about the food and beverage industry,” McPherson said.

When he noticed that Dai Ichikawa ’92 worked for Starbucks’ corporate office, McPherson reached out to the Lake Forest alum. “What better place to learn about the food and beverage industry than Starbucks?,” he said.

For Ichikawa, the decision to sign up for the Forester Career Network was a natural. “Making sure I reach out when I can to help others has become the nature of how I operate,” he said.

McPherson’s initial call to Ichikawa launched what has become a successful, long-distance mentoring relationship. “I learned a lot from him in the first hour of our conversation,” McPherson said.

Recently, when Ichikawa found out McPherson and Beatriz Estay ’17 would be in Seattle over spring break, he invited the two Foresters to the Starbucks headquarters for a tour and chance to sit down and talk face-to-face.

“It was great,” said Estay, a communication and sociology and anthropology double-major who was interested in learning about Starbucks’ social media and marketing mastery. “It was very beneficial to learn about his company and how the experience Lake Forest provides applies to the real world.”

Both Estay and McPherson consider Ichikawa an important part of their future.

“Dai provided great advice and gave me insight on how the skills I learned last summer in my internship with fashion designer April Pride will apply to a larger corporation like Starbucks in the future,” Estay said. Ichikawa also provides a link to Seattle-area corporations.

“He gave me some great advice on how I should approach my internship this summer and on what I should focus on in my classes,” McPherson said. “He’s definitely a part of my career network.”

 

News Contact

Linda Blaser
Manager, News and Media Relations
847-735-6177
blaser@lakeforest.edu

Related Links:

• Forester Career Network