Mentor a founder
Offer practical feedback to a student team working through an early company decision.
Ashwin Lalendran · MPowered co-founder
He built the bridge. Alumni can widen it.
As a Michigan mechanical engineering student, Ashwin helped create MPowered so students could turn what they learned into things they could build, test, and lead, with businesses and alumni beside them.
The founding idea
Ashwin gave student builders a place to start.
In its 2009 profile, The Michigan Daily described Ashwin's push for students to apply classroom lessons to self-made success. MPowered connected that ambition with Michigan businesses, alumni, competitions, and other student entrepreneurs.
Source: “Students of the year: Ashwin Lalendran”“He lived and breathed MPowered everyday.”
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Build the bridge
Turn classroom ideas into action.
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Open the network
Bring students, companies, and alumni together.
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Pass the torch
Give the next student leaders room to grow.
Founders meet alumni
The next useful conversation could start here.
Current founders bring
- An early idea that needs pressure-testing
- A hard product, customer, or hiring decision
- A request for industry context or an introduction
Alumni can bring
- Pattern recognition from building after Michigan
- Practical feedback, office hours, and mentorship
- Connections to companies, talent, and opportunity
Stay part of it
Choose how you want to help the next generation move forward.
Speak or judge
Return for a pitch event, workshop, fireside conversation, or program milestone.
Recruit Michigan talent
Share internships, startup roles, and early-career opportunities with current students.
Open a door
Make an introduction, host a company visit, or connect a team to useful expertise.
Support a program
Help fund founder resources, events, travel, prizes, and student-led experiments.
Share your story
Show students how an MPowered chapter can grow into a career, company, or community.
What happens next
Reconnect once. We will find the right moment to bring you back in.
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Tell us where you are
Share your MPowered history, current work, and preferred way to participate.
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We find the fit
The student team reaches out when a program, founder, or opportunity fits your interests.
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Your story carries forward
With permission, verified alumni stories and impact will begin appearing on this page.
The invitation
Come back and help the next student start.
If you led a program, joined a team, built a venture, volunteered, or simply showed up with an idea, there is a place for you in the next chapter of MPowered.
Tell us where MPowered took you and how you would like to stay involved. Then share this page with a former teammate who should be part of the network too.