At MITRE's McLean headquarters, NextUp members and summer interns mingle at a July ice cream social. The event, cosponsored by NextUp and University Recruiting, is just one way that NextUp members across MITRE hone their mentoring and leadership skills, as well as demonstrate MITRE's commitment to early-career support.
Young professionals in MITRE’s NextUp affinity group can attest: When mentoring minds come together, growth occurs in every direction.
Surrounded by some of the foremost experts in tech, science, health, and defense, early-career professionals at MITRE never lack for guidance and advice. But they also gain and share knowledge from another source: each other.
NextUp, an internal employee group, operates for early-career professionals by early-career professionals across our two main campuses and 10 additional sites across the United States. Built from a collective desire to combine personal development and network-building, the group provides an opportunity for staff just entering the workforce to develop leadership skills.
“Not all companies offer a group like NextUp," says Megan McCulley, a Fort Meade, Md.-based applied cybersecurity engineer. “Immediately coming into a new job as a young professional doesn’t always put you in a place to meet others at this stage—but NextUp fills that hole at MITRE.”
“It’s a path to leadership positions that might otherwise be challenging to find in the company” as a newer professional, says Nick Merlino, co-chair of the NextUp executive board and a cyber group leader in MITRE’s Bedford, Mass., headquarters.
Membership in NextUp is voluntary, but the organization’s Welcome Wagon-style of connecting and programming have made it a natural first step for many of MITRE’s newcomers. Employees in locations without a physical group may participate virtually.
Every four to six weeks, Merlino and co-chair Gianna Kefalas—a full stack developer based in Bedford—hold Teams meetings for all NextUp site leaders. From San Diego to Fort Meade, the site leaders and executive board members inspire each other with stories of successful networking, mentoring opportunities, and lessons learned.
“We look to NextUp’s perspective as new and important voices—they’re a self-organized group of self-starters, highly motivated, and in tune to the unique needs of their peers.”
The group’s executive board also found cooperation from MITRE’s senior leadership in having a seat at the table at high-level meetings to bring an early-career perspective to current issues, such as facilities and company culture.
“It makes all the sense in the world” to seek input from the next generation of MITRE leaders on decisions that affect their work, now and in the future, says Douglas Robbins, vice president for engineering and prototyping for MITRE Labs.
For example, Robbins recalls, NextUp leaders were invited to participate in senior-level leadership meetings about ways to make the Bedford campus more appealing as employees returned to the office after the COVID-19 lockdown. Merlino ran a NextUp competition for the design of a disc golf course on Bedford’s grounds. The course is still in use—a testament to the power of bringing minds together for the common MITRE vision.
“We look to NextUp’s perspective as new and important voices,” Robbins says. “They’re a self-organized group of self-starters, highly motivated, and in tune to the unique needs of their peers.”
A universally popular NextUp program is its “Pizza with a Pro” series, in which the group invites a MITRE leader or subject-matter expert to share stories of their experiences and connect with newer professionals. The group also helps plan and run an annual company-wide speed-networking event that aims to strengthen knowledge and collaboration within focus areas such as cyber and defense.
Bedford-based full stack developer Ann Marie Burke participated in NextUp’s mentorship program while an intern; when she joined MITRE full-time, she got involved in the group’s development initiatives and now serves as Bedford’s NextUp co-lead.
“Starting as an intern and being a mentee made me want to pay it forward,” Burke says.
There’s fun to be had at NextUp, too.
Lindsey Baxter, a human resources professional in McLean, Va., points to the dynamic between career stages at a recent NextUp board game night.
“We had such a great mix of people: interns, recent grads who just started full-time, and people with multiple years of experience at MITRE,” Baxter says. “It showed that social events make it easy for employees from various points in their careers to engage and collaborate.”
Kelafas and Merlino have high praise for how far NextUp has come and where it’s headed. They’re also ever mindful of what they learn from the membership on a regular basis.
“I feel like they’re all great mentors to me, too.” Merlino says. “I’m really proud of this team.”
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