Mentoring—All It Takes is Heart and a Little Bit of Time

For Costa Mesa resident Saiful Huq, there’s a difference between being a teacher and being a mentor. A teacher gives a student new knowledge about a subject while a mentor offers guidance and fine tuning of skills. It’s a minor distinction, but one that guides everything Huq does as a volunteer-mentor.

Huq learned important mentoring lessons from a former boss and mentor who taught him to slow down and pay attention to blind spots. That advice came almost 25 years ago and Huq still uses it today.

“I was extremely hyper and impatient, but my boss taught me how to be methodical, patient, and thorough,” said Huq. “I learned to take time, to give another person the benefit of the doubt and realize they may not be aware of differing viewpoints.”

That’s the direction Huq tries to take when he mentors through the SoLa I CAN Foundation. Huq mentors Andreas, an 18-year-old who is training to enter the Information Technology (IT) field. Andreas was paired with Huq in March 2021 after enrolling in a healthcare retraining program. Currently, a restaurant worker, Andreas wants to become a health care systems administrator, which has the potential to nearly double his salary and also will likely provide benefits. Huq has worked in health care for 17 years and is in a unique position to help mentor and guide Andreas not only into a field in which he has experience, but also that inspires him.

“It’s been an honor and a really rewarding experience to participate in the mentoring program,” Huq said. “I wish there was enough time in the day to mentor two people, but this is a great beginning.”

Huq serves as a volunteer-mentor through the UnitedHealthcare Employee Community and Engagement Committee. As a member of Optum’s technology services organization, Huq serves UnitedHealthcare. Both businesses are part of UnitedHealth Group.

Andreas and Huq use an online video conferencing program for their mentoring sessions, which allows them to meet during the pandemic and work on IT projects together. They get together once or twice a week to go over progress in preparing for the tests which assess performance and can help Andreas get jobs in the health care IT field.

Huq has been a big advocate for other UnitedHealth Group employees to join the mentoring program and various volunteer events hosted by the committee.

“The leadership at UnitedHealthcare and Optum goes out of their way to accommodate and encourage volunteering activity,” Huq said. “It's a part of our culture. I feel fortunate to do what we do and help future generations find their way into health care.”

In 1991, Huq immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh. He wanted to become an engineer, but he was rejected from the only engineering school near him.

He used to make fun of other kids who were applying to go to America for school. But after his dream was thwarted in Bangladesh, he found himself applying in the U.S. as well. He got accepted to a small school in Minnesota, Winona State.

“I went to the U.S. Embassy,” Huq said. “I barely spoke English. The embassy diplomat asked me, ‘So, what are you going to do?’ And I said, ‘I'm going to go to learn about computer science.’ And as I was walking out, he said, ‘Yeah. All right, go enjoy.’

"And then, ‘Hey, kid, it's cold up there. Bring a jacket.’ ”

Coming from a tropical Bangladesh climate, Huq didn’t own a jacket. He took the diplomat’s advice, bought a winter jacket, and went on to graduate from Winona State in computer engineering. Since then, he has mentored many of his employees as a manager, but not in a formal pairing as a volunteer until now.

“When you work with somebody on a professional level, you have a high-level expectation in both directions,” he said. “Usually, when I have mentored people, either I have hired them, or they got hired and came into my umbrella somehow, and I have to bring them up to speed. This one is a little bit of a different challenge, but it is very rewarding.”

Anyone can volunteer, Huq said, “You just have to have the heart and a little bit of time.”