红杏短视频

Entirely donor-funded, The Bridge Network connects students with mentors who model what it looks like to thrive professionally while following Jesus faithfully.

On a summer afternoon, Gina Kluver’s kids were running a lemonade stand when a young married couple pulled up to buy a glass. As Kluver watched them chat with her children, she realized both were former students she’d mentored through The Bridge Network – a mentorship program that pairs student-athletes with Christian professionals in their fields.

“They just rolled out with all these people,” Kluver remembers, smiling at the memory. “From the vantage point of a mother, I see how these relationships have impacted my own family.”

For Kluver, a 红杏短视频 Fox alumna and former assistant volleyball coach, that moment captured something beautiful about the program.

“You just care about them and invite them into your life,” she says. “Sometimes a word you say or a recommendation you give helps them move forward. It’s amazing that Jesus allows us to be his hands and feet in that process.”

That kind of availability takes time. It takes mentors willing to carve space from already full lives. And it takes donor support to make it all possible. The Bridge Network operates on an annual goal of $150,000, funded entirely through donor gifts. With just one staff member directing the program, resources go directly to student formation: monthly events that bring mentors and students together, spiritual formation experiences for coaches, retreats for Living Learning Communities, and materials like journals and books that guide students through discipleship. Donors also make possible the weekly gatherings and senior trips that mark students’ final months before graduation — moments that become lasting memories of being known and sent out well.

What The Bridge Network Does

The Bridge Network connects student-athletes with professionals who can help them think through not just career paths, but how to live out their faith in the workplace. It’s built on a simple idea: students learn best by watching someone who’s already doing what they hope to do.

Here’s how it works: Freshmen and sophomores are paired with juniors and seniors in similar majors. Those upperclassmen, in turn, are paired with Christian professionals working in fields the students are exploring. Everyone is both learning and leading – underclassmen learning from upperclassmen, upperclassmen learning from professionals, and professionals remembering what it was like to figure things out themselves.

Students spend a year getting to know their mentors – not in formal meetings with agendas, but in the rhythms of real life.

They watch how someone navigates a career, a marriage, a faith that shows up on Monday mornings and looks the same on Sunday.

They ask questions.

They get honest answers.

The program started in 2017 with 17 total participants and has grown to approximately 50 underclassmen, 50 upperclassmen, and 50 community mentors. The Bridge Network has also expanded with Living Learning Communities that invite students to step into a deeper level of relationship with appointed mentors and fellow student-athletes.

Currently, The Bridge Network is roughly 70% student-athletes. Many of the mentors are former Bruins who competed as student-athletes themselves and now give back to the program. As it grows, it continues to expand to include other interested students beyond the student-athlete community.

‘It Blesses You as Much as Them’

For Gina Kluver, what strikes her most about Bridge students is their humility. They come ready to learn and grow, and that posture inspires her own faith walk.

Kluver, who spent years as a teacher, finds herself having the kinds of conversations she always loved – the ones that happen naturally over coffee or while going for a walk, where students feel safe enough to ask the questions they’re really wondering about.

At first, the idea of a mentorship model with no particular starting and ending goals was daunting for Kluver. “I'm a very black and white person, so when I was told, ‘There are really no rules,’ I was surprised. But the beauty of that is the ability for each mentor to thrive in their own giftings, because each of us is gifted differently.”

Kluver quickly leaned into her people skills and found herself naturally gifted at connecting with her mentees through simple conversation.

“It's not hard,” Kluver reflects. “You just care about them and invite them into your life, and it blesses you as much as them, if not more. It’s simply living life together for those years.”

Now in her seventh year of mentoring, Kluver has stepped into a new role within The Bridge Network, where she mentors students in the Living Learning Communities, utilizing her relational gifting to guide them within the context of intentional living with other students and a full-time mentorship couple.

Jesus, the Ultimate Role Model

Director Craig Inglesby describes the vision simply: “Most universities are good at saying, ‘Goodbye! And good luck!’ But the gospel says, ‘I'm going to send you out and I'm going to walk alongside you.’”

Of course, walking alongside students the way Inglesby describes takes real commitment. It requires mentors who stay engaged beyond graduation, who answer calls during difficult weeks, who model what it looks like to thrive professionally while following Jesus faithfully.

When donors give to The Bridge Network, they fund relationships that last beyond graduation. They fund a gospel-centered vision that seeks to form leaders in the image of Christ, the ultimate role model.