Celebrating National Mentoring Month
January is National Mentoring Month (NMM), a time to reflect on the impact of mentorship and encourage more professionals to engage in professional development. At Cengage Group, mentorship is a cornerstone of growth and connection—helping individuals share knowledge, build confidence and strengthen community.
Our Women in Tech (WiT) Employee Resource Group (ERG) Mentoring Program embodies this commitment by pairing mentors and mentees across roles and career stages. The program creates space for meaningful conversations, guidance and mutual learning, empowering members to thrive personally and professionally.
To raise awareness for NMM, we’re spotlighting four WiT Mentoring Program participants who exemplify the power of mentorship: Chris Armstrong, SVP of Strategy & Business Operations, Matt Saldeen, Senior Manager of Software Engineering, Kim Le, Implementation Specialist and Danielle Dell'Imperio, Senior Manager of Data Quality.
Watch the video below where they each share one habit that made their mentor-mentee partnership work—and then keep reading for their reflections on why they joined WiT Mentoring Program, how they approached expectations and routines, the feedback that shaped growth and the surprising lessons they discovered along the way.
Mentor Insights
What motivated you to participate in the WiT Mentoring Program?
Chris: I really enjoy mentoring, so it wasn’t a tough decision to say yes when asked. I get a ton of energy from the team building and talent development side of my role—it’s one of the most rewarding parts of what I do. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to work across almost every part of Cengage Group, which gives me a unique perspective on how the organization operates. That experience allows me to help mentees make connections, navigate challenges and understand how things work behind the scenes. For me, mentoring is about helping others grow in ways that accelerate their careers.
Matt: There are precious few instances in my career where I felt like I had someone senior to me who was genuinely interested in my upward growth, and all of them were watershed moments in my career. We all get so stuck in our own assumptions and expectations, and having an outside perspective challenge those assumptions can completely change our trajectory. I want more people to have these moments! On top of that, tech is a big, complicated space, and a space where women are severely underrepresented. I can't think of a better way to try and make a difference than to lend my experience and support.
What expectations did you set with your mentee about who drives the work vs. how you support and guide?
Chris: I typically let the mentee drive the agenda; otherwise, the discussion can focus too much on what worked in my career and not be fully relevant to theirs. My role is to listen, guide and share insights when helpful. Sometimes I’ll assign myself a bit of homework—like digging up a resource, making a few connections or reviewing a document—to support their goals.
Matt: The mentee is in charge—even when that’s tough for them to accept! It’s excellent practice in one of the major themes I strive to hit with any mentorship: your career isn’t something that passively happens to you for doing ‘a good job’—your career is something you need to go get. Nobody else will do it for you. Mentorship works the same way: it’s not a cheat sheet giving you the answers; it’s an experienced perspective providing assistance in your journey.
What routines kept you aligned?
Chris: When there’s a specific career event happening for my mentee, I like to stay closely involved and check in frequently. Otherwise, I set up a recurring call to keep the rhythm going. I think of mentoring calls as ‘important, but not urgent,’ so I try to be disciplined about maintaining that cadence and not letting sessions slip too much when schedules get busy.
Matt: I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the engagement setting up a checklist of the things we want to achieve, so we can remind ourselves each week to attack those goals. Every session starts with two questions: ‘What’s on your mind?’ and ‘What do we want to accomplish today?’ The structure is flexible—it can be as formal or informal as the mentee needs—as long as they’re making visible progress toward their goals.
What surprised you about the mentoring experience or the relationship dynamic?
Chris: It’s not a surprise anymore, but it was when I first started mentoring—how much development benefit I get from these relationships. Thinking through someone else’s career challenge often surfaces lessons you can apply in your own career. In many ways, I feel like I grow just as much (if not more) as my mentees.
Matt: What surprises me most about the mentoring experience is that no matter how different our backgrounds are, we’re often so alike in our career journeys. At one point or another, everyone makes negative assumptions, suffers from self-doubt and gets too focused on where they are now to think about where they’re trying to go next. Sometimes all the relationship needs to be is a neutral third party to remind someone of things they already know but weren’t able to focus on.
Mentee Insights
What motivated you to participate in the WiT Mentoring Program?
Danielle: I joined the WiT Mentoring Program to build a habit of reflection and navigate my career more thoughtfully. I’ve been fortunate to have a few great mentors at Cengage, but because my career path has been a bit nontraditional, I wanted to spend more time on those big-picture conversations—like, ‘Where do you see yourself in five or ten years?’ This program gave me the space to step back from day-to-day tasks and think strategically about where I want to go next.
Kim: As this is my first experience working fully remote, I joined the WiT Mentoring Program to strengthen my internal network and feel more connected to the organization. I wanted the opportunity to learn from colleagues with diverse career paths and gain insight into how others have successfully navigated growth within the company. For me, mentorship was a way to build relationships, broaden my perspective and better understand how to chart my own career path at Cengage Group.
Describe feedback you received and how you turned it into a concrete plan.
Danielle: When I joined the program, I had a lot of ideas about what I wanted to work on. My mentor, Matt, helped me take all those thoughts and find the common threads, which we organized into a few key buckets. That structure gave us the space to focus on the areas that would really help me grow.
Transitioning from a Data Steward to an Enterprise Architect was a big shift. I had to learn how to see the bigger picture and turn that vision into actionable plans for others. While I’ve always been comfortable with ambiguity, leading through it with confidence and making sure others felt supported was a new challenge. Throughout our time together, Matt and I explored different communication strategies and worked through challenges side by side. I also found tremendous value in the way he shared his own experiences, which helped me reflect and uncover new opportunities for growth.
Kim: Through the mentoring process, I realized I was struggling with imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence in recognizing my own accomplishments. My mentor provided practical feedback on how to consistently document my achievements and encouraged me to advocate for my work more proactively. As a result, I developed a habit of tracking key contributions and wins, which has helped me better articulate my impact, prepare for performance conversations and build confidence in the value I bring to the team.
Share a tangible result you achieved from the mentoring experience.
Danielle: Matt did a great job of making sure I didn’t feel locked into my current career path. Instead, he encouraged me to reflect on what I enjoyed most about my role and explore opportunities beyond my department. That perspective ultimately led me to transition into my current role—a move that has expanded my responsibilities and allowed me to contribute at a more strategic level.
Kim: One tangible result of this experience has been increased visibility and access to opportunities beyond my immediate role. Through our conversations, my mentor became a strong advocate for me and has mentioned my name in discussions and meetings I’m not directly part of. This has helped open doors to potential side projects and allowed me to gain exposure to new teams and stretch opportunities.
What surprised you about the WiT mentorship experience?
Danielle: Matt was truly in my corner and struck the perfect balance between support and challenge. We dug deep into the areas I wanted to develop, and he consistently reminded me to reserve time and energy for my own professional growth. Because of him, my confidence as a leader has grown significantly. I didn’t expect the experience to have such a lasting impact, and I’m incredibly grateful to WiT for pairing us together.
Kim: What surprised me the most was how thoughtfully the mentor/mentee pairings were made. I’ve participated in the program twice, and while both mentors had very different mentoring styles, each experience was equally impactful. This showed me the value of learning from different perspectives and leadership approaches. It also reinforced that there’s no single ‘right’ way to mentor, every relationship brings unique insights and lessons that help you grow in unexpected ways.
Learn More:
Want to explore more stories and insights about the power of mentorship? Click here to hear from our executive team as they share advice on overcoming obstacles, achieving goals, staying motivated, and maintaining persistence. Click here to discover additional employee experiences in this feature highlighting participants in our Pathways Program, a personalized mentorship experience that allows our employees interested in career exploration to network beyond their current role, gain insight into potential career paths and develop a vision for their future.