One student’s secret advantage? His VCU mentor.
VCU Business students and alumni find common ground, and career insights, through BUSN 201 group mentoring.
By Megan Nash
The shape of Andre Fennell’s (B.S. ’27) spring semester began to shift during a mentor meeting over Zoom.
Fennell, a marketing major at the VCU School of Business, had been assigned a professional mentor through BUSN 201: Foundations of Business, a required second-year course. In theory, it was a standard assignment. In practice, it turned into something else.
“It started off as a class assignment,” said Fennell. “But Rich did not treat it like that. He treated us like people. We would be talking about career topics, then five minutes later we were talking about life. And somehow it always came full circle.”
The BUSN 201 group mentoring program, launched in fall 2024, is still relatively new, but it is already shaping how business students connect with alumni. Built into a required course, the initiative pairs small groups of second-year business students with professional mentors, many of them VCU Business alumni. The groups meet virtually three times over the semester, with an in-person mixer at the end.
“The mentoring program content melded nicely with the curriculum and content of BUSN 201,” said instructor David Burke, Ed.D., who taught one of the two course sections this past spring. “Oftentimes in higher education, we try to force and squish stuff into our academic delivery. The elements of the mentoring program were a perfect fit to place business and leadership theory into action, now and in the future.”
Over the past academic year, 98 mentors and 256 students took part. Fennell’s mentor was Rich Reinecke (B.S. ’96), co-managing partner and co-founder of Fahrenheit Advisors and a longtime supporter of VCU Business.
From their very first meeting, Reinecke’s approach was personal and immediate. When another student in the group expressed interest in the beauty industry, “Rich said, ‘Follow me on LinkedIn. I have someone you need to meet,’” Fennell recalled. “That was literally day two.”
It is the kind of momentum Reinecke believes all students should experience. “Your network is your net worth,” he said. “Every speaker, every professor, every classmate — you never know who is going to help you get where you want to go.”
Fennell already had an entrepreneurial streak. In elementary school, he flipped memorabilia on eBay; later, he built custom PCs. Reinecke helped him see how those instincts fit into a bigger picture. “He told us how Fahrenheit came together, and it did not go how he imagined at first,” Fennell said. “It taught me that being a founder does not mean you do it alone. That collaboration is part of it.”
The structure of the mentoring program is simple by design: a mix of guided topics, breakout discussions and optional follow-up. But the connections often outlast the class itself.
“He still checks in,” Fennell said. “He did not have to, but he does.”
That kind of impact is the goal, Burke said. “I always challenge my students with, ‘Who is mentoring you, and who are you mentoring?’ The mentoring program in BUSN 201 provided a catalyst to begin this leadership journey.”
Reinecke said his motivation to mentor comes from his own experience. “I owe a lot of the success, whatever success I’ve had in business, to mentors that have helped me along the way,” he said. “Having consistent conversations and opportunities for people to tell me what life is really like and point me in the right direction… it’s been valuable.”
Fennell said the experience gave him more than he expected — and that the outcome depends on what students bring to it.
“If you try, it shows,” he said. “If you care and put forth the effort, you get more than just a grade out of it.”
Learn more and register to mentor in the BUSN 201 group mentoring program; registration for fall 2025 closes Aug. 15.
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