Across the country and around the world, you’ll find plenty of Blue Hens who would love to give something back to the place that gave them so much.  

Meanwhile, back on the University of Delaware campus, plenty of graduate students would love to be given some of the real-world knowledge that these older Blue Hens have gained. 

Connecting these far-flung mentors with student mentees has never been an easy task, but this spring UD’s Graduate College is unveiling an enhanced, homegrown matchmaking solution — with the help of some savvy mathematics students and a bit of algorithmic wizardry. 

The result is a thorough tuneup of an existing program called Grad LEAP (Grad Leveraging Engaged Alumni Program), which over the past three years has matched roughly 700 graduate students with their real-world mentors. Past cohorts of Grad LEAP had relied on an external vendor to do the matchmaking, but the Graduate College was inspired to bring the effort in-house, resulting in a more efficient and cost-effective process. 

The new system has swung into action, and applications are open for the next cohort of Grad LEAP mentors and mentees. The effort's genesis reaches back to the summer of 2024, when Graduate College Dean Lou Rossi challenged participants at a math conference to craft an upgraded matchmaking algorithm. 

With the help of UD mathematics graduate student Emmanuel Adebayo, that’s what they did — in just four days while they were attending the Mathematical Problems in Industry Workshop, sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Guided by Johanna Voznak, a program coordinator with the Graduate College, Adebayo and his team of student prodigies from other universities came up with a program that promises to be more finely attuned to identifying compatible pairs. 

“The prior system was prone to producing mismatches occasionally,” Voznak said. “We wanted a process that lets us prioritize the most important aspects of each applicant’s background, like academics and career goals.” 

The new algorithm is designed to systematically pluck out commonalities from the profile information provided in online application forms. It focuses more closely on career and academic attributes, and simulations have already shown improved matchmaking outcomes, Voznak said.  

That’s not to say that participants from past cohorts didn't find enduring connections. Students say their yearlong interactions with mentors have helped them cope with such external challenges as coursework, career planning and networking. But it’s also been about addressing the internal struggles and gaining a reliably supportive friend. 

That’s what Ukrainian student Daria Batalova discovered when she connected with mentor Lorrie Burke Jackson, an assistant director in UD’s Enrollment Services Office. After heading to Newark as part of her Fulbright Scholarship, Batalova found that her life was filled with worries — some typical of many master’s degree students, others sparked by the brutal war in her homeland.  

“And just being an international student is extra challenging,” said Batalova, who is working on her master’s in education. “At some points, I felt like Lorrie was the only person who I could talk to about looking for a job, graduating from the University and completing all of my projects in time. Even though I have friends here, they are usually in the same boat as I am. Talking to someone who had been through all that already, I know what to expect — and if I know what to expect, I know how to act.” 

Once each mentor-mentee pair is determined, the partners are free to determine the mode and timing of their meetings. Many of the communications are conducted via email or Zoom, sometimes from across the ocean. 

That’s where the students can usually find veteran mentor Michel Hess, who earned his UD doctorate in political science in 1995. His job often sends him to far-flung countries, but he still managed to be a mentor for five UD graduate students last year. 

When Hess and his mentee meet, he builds a dynamic where the students can work toward their own solutions.  

“I don’t give any advice,” Hess said. “Together, we create a space for personal reflection. In a way, there’s a third person in the room — the person the student aspires to be. Step-by-step, they eventually come up with a vision of themselves. It’s important to have a vision of yourself, a self-understanding.” 

One of Hess’ mentees had despaired that she would ever assimilate after coming to UD from her native India. She was homesick, and she knew she needed a supportive network, but was having little luck. 

"But then UD and my department really came through for me,” said Navroz Singh, a doctoral student in international relations. “My professors were so supportive, and they understood the challenge I was going through. So this place very quickly became home.” 

With the help of Hess, her new home would become even better. Their initial conversations about academic stress quickly evolved into broader discussions about her future potential. 

Officially, her sessions with Hess ended last semester, but Singh is pretty certain it won’t end there. The two have agreed to work on a research project together, and those long-distance emails are sure to continue. 

"I think he would agree, I will be after him for advice probably forever,” Singh said. “Because even after you graduate, you need it. There are so many of these tricky situations in life where you really need someone to guide you.”