Columbus Veterans Nonprofit Marks 10 Years Pairing Mentors With Transitioning Vets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus nonprofit that pairs transitioning veterans with local business professionals as mentors is marking 10 years of work this month, and it will celebrate the milestone where many of its matches begin: over a conversation, on Veterans Day. The Overwatch Partnership, founded in Columbus in 2016, pairs veterans leaving military service with mentors and talent specialists who help them translate their experience into civilian careers, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

The Dispatch reported in its Kindness coverage on Sunday that about 215 mentees have come through the program in its first decade, along with approximately 170 mentors and talent specialists — figures co-founder and executive director Eric Gentzel gave to The Dispatch. Gentzel completed four years of Army active duty in 2009, The Dispatch reported, and he helped build the organization alongside fellow founders Jon Rust and Mike Rogers, according to the partnership’s own history.

The organization’s name comes from a term every service member knows. “Overwatch” is a military term for providing cover for a fellow service member, The Dispatch reported, and the partnership’s site describes the same idea: no one makes the transition out of uniform alone, and someone who has already made the crossing watches out for the person coming behind.

The model is deliberately personal. Rather than a job board or a one-time resume workshop, the partnership matches a veteran with a working professional in central Ohio who meets with them over time, opens doors in local industries, and helps them think through what a second career can look like. Ohio State University’s Military and Veterans Services also lists The Overwatch Partnership among the Columbus organizations supporting veterans moving into civilian employment.

Employers are part of the structure, not just an audience for it. Gentzel told The Dispatch that partners including Victoria’s Secret, Worthington Enterprises and Worthington Steel hire mentees, sponsor events, and provide financial support. That employer involvement matters in a region where logistics, manufacturing, retail headquarters, and steel all hire steadily — and where a veteran’s military specialty does not always map neatly onto a civilian job title without an interpreter.

The timing of the anniversary is not an accident. Veterans Day week is when central Ohio’s veterans community is most visible, with ceremonies, parades, and employer events across Franklin County, and the partnership is using the moment to recruit the next class of both mentees and mentors. Every veteran who finishes the program and settles into a civilian career becomes, in the organization’s design, a potential overwatch for the next one.

What we know — and what we’re still waiting on

What we know: the partnership was founded in Columbus in 2016 by local veterans and business professionals, it is a registered 501(c)(3), and its own count — given by its executive director to The Dispatch — puts its first decade at about 215 mentees and 170 mentors and talent specialists. What we are still waiting on: the organization’s plans for its second decade, including whether it will expand beyond central Ohio, have not been detailed publicly; those announcements are expected around its anniversary events.

The need the group addresses has not shrunk. Transitioning service members continue to arrive in central Ohio each year, drawn by the same employers who partner with the program, and state and university veterans offices continue to route them toward community-based help because the first civilian job search is where many veterans say the support system thins out.

What happens next: The Overwatch Partnership holds its 10-year anniversary Veterans Day event from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at North High Brewing in Dublin, The Dispatch reported. Veterans interested in a mentor — and professionals interested in becoming one — can connect with the organization there and through its website.