It didn't take long for mentor Bill Wei and protégé Christiane Collins to think of themselves as twins who had much more in common than scientific careers.
When they signed up with MentorNet, they both had fairly typical expectations: Wei wanted to help students and Collins needed some career advice. Collins was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finishing her Ph.D. in biological engineering at MIT. Her husband was in the Netherlands at his new job, and her immediate family was in Germany, her native country.
Wei, too, knew what it was like to be a foreigner and on one's own. He was born and raised in the United States, but had lived and worked in Germany a number of years; for the past 10 years he's lived in Amsterdam, where he teaches material science to students who want to become art conservators.
"We hit it off very quickly," Wei recalls in a phone interview. "We are alike in many ways - it's like having a sister I can talk to."
Helping Overcome Barriers to Success
Wei "just happened" onto MentorNet not long after he lost his wife to cancer. He signed up because he wanted to help women succeed, in honor of his wife. MentorNet struck a chord with him, because he knew firsthand the barriers women in science and engineering face.
"In Germany, especially, I could see how they're treated - and they're not taken as seriously," he says, recalling the time when a male colleague asked only the female engineers at his firm to cover the phones when the secretary was away. "It's nice to be able to help. Women should be able to concentrate on their work and enjoy their work instead of having to worry about those things."
Collins says Wei helped her enormously in many ways, but particularly with her thesis, which was on DNA damage induced by radiation.
"I hate to write - it's an awful process if you're a practical person like me," she says, in a phone interview from her home in Holland, where she joined her husband after finishing her thesis. "Without Bill, I never would have finished it. He gave me really good feedback. To have somebody be the calm voice of reason was really helpful."
In Search of Career Opportunities
Collins signed up with MentorNet because "I didn't really know what I was going to do," she says. "I had no clue what was open to me or what my options were. In my program they don't do anything to support grad students in their careers, and career services at MIT couldn't help me."
Her mentor became her sole information resource, letting her know about potential employers and advising her on her résumé and job search techniques.
"I heard stuff from Bill that I didn't want to hear, but that was really important for me to hear," says Collins. "It's important to have friends who will set your head straight."
He also helped her prepare for the move to Holland in May to join her husband, and shared his own experiences of moving to Europe with his wife years before.
"I had a lot of anxiety about it. Not speaking the language and being German, I thought the reception might not be very favorable," Collins says. "All of a sudden I had a friend here. He speaks German and has many German friends, so he could tell me what it was all about.
"Bill could also tell me how it felt for my husband," Collins continues. "It was important for me to hear how [he and his wife] overcame these problems.
Wei says Collins has been a great mentor and supporter for him, too, helping him cope with his wife's death and being on his own.
"Christiane has a way of helping people sort things out," he says. "She was very supportive. It was great because she could help me and I could help her."
Now they live about an hour apart. Wei, who became a Dutch citizen, is helping Collins look for work.
"She's very talented and I think she'll be quite successful," he says, adding, "That's the best thing: seeing people succeed."