The Mentors Project: Bernie Dana

MENTEE
Evangel University Enactus team

OBJECTIVE
To create an effective leadership team of university students who can lead the Enactus team to use entrepreneurial action to improve the lives of others.

HOW
Imagine working with full-time students who have busy schedules but are motivated and eager to learn how to lead others to impact the lives of people in measurable ways. Imagine that they also graduate after one to two years, and we have to start all over again! We have an entirely new group of five officers this year.

RESULTS
Last year, the Evangel Enactus team went to the semifinal round at the national completion and was ranked one of the 20 best teams in the nation.

BREAKTHROUGHS
Two years ago, our Enactus team did not do enough meaningful projects to compete. As a new mentor, I helped select a group of students that I felt would make effective leaders and took them to the national competition to observe.

YOUR MENTOR
I’ve had a number of mentors during my [previous] career as a corporate executive and consultant. One person I greatly appreciated as a mentor was Robert Spence, past president of Evangel. I became president of the EU Alumni Association in the same year he became president. I later served on the EU Board of Trustees for 16 years before joining the faculty. Over that 40-year span, I benefited greatly from my association with him.