Find Your Pack is a new Honors initiative that brings together first or second year mentees with second, third or fourth year mentors to form a "pack." Mentees receive additional guidance to help them navigate Cal Poly and the Honors Program, while mentors acquire valuable leadership experience that fulfills the mentorship co-curricular requirement. Most importantly, joining a pack provides students with a community within a community, allowing them to meet new people and form deeper connections with their peers.
Meet the Mentors
Kate Combs (she/her/hers)
Major: Public Health with Community and Public Health concentration
Year: 3rd
Hometown: Lopez Island, WA
Campus Involvement: Honors Program
Career Interest: Community health initiatives, contracting out for public health responses to large disasters
Favorite Place/Activity in SLO: Hanging out at the barn with her horse and going on walks at Montaña de Oro.
Fun Fact: Kate brought one of her horses to school with her, loves playing golf, and is from a ferry-service only island!
Ellie Conlin-Day (she/her/hers)
Major: Food Science with Culinology and Advanced Food Science Concentrations
Year: 2nd
Hometown: Kennett Square, PA
Campus Involvement: Cal Poly Cat Program, JARS Production, Food Science Club, CAFES Ambassador
Career Interest: Production industry
Favorite Place/Activity in SLO: Ellie loves thrifting around SLO; Fred and Betty's is her favorite store to look around.
Fun Fact: Ellie teaches aerial yoga downtown at The Center Studio every Saturday morning!
Marcus Monroe (he/him/his)
Major: Mechanical Engineering with Mechatronics concentration
Year: 4th
Hometown: Portland, OR
Campus Involvement: Honors Program
Career Interest: Design and innovation in mechanical engineering
Favorite Place/Activity in SLO: Surfing at Morro Bay.
Fun Fact: Marcus loves to surf!
Hunter Smith (he/him/his)
Major: Business Administration with Accounting concentration
Year: 3rd
Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Campus Involvement: VP of Finance for the Cal Poly Accounting Club, Co-President of the Tennis Club, Road Cyclist for the Cycling Club, Former Secretary of the Astronomical Society
Career Interest: Hunter is going to work on mergers and acquisitions in the tax practice as a CPA with the MST at PwC San Francisco.
Favorite Place/Activity in SLO: Biking to Pagnol's in Los Osos
Fun Fact: Hunter is a triplet!
Marissa VanDeVeer (she/her/hers)
Major: Biomedical Engineering, Mathematics minor
Year: 3rd
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Campus Involvement: President of Cal Poly Colleges Against Cancer/Relay for Life, Community Outreach Officer for EMPOWER Student Association, on a Formal Design Project called Arm for Beth creating her a prosthetic arm
Career Interest: Marisssa wants to help others through different aspects of medicine engineering. Ideally, she would like to work with patients to make their lives easier (through prosthetics, medical devices, etc.)
Favorite Place/Activity in SLO: Going up to Prefumo Canyon for sunrise
Fun Fact: Marissa studied abroad in Madrid, Spain this past fall!