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You can also see questions from protégés at FAQ for Protégés.
One-on-One Mentoring Program, an Overview:
Getting Involved:
I've Been Matched – Now What?
If you still have an unanswered question, please contact MentorNet at info@mentornet.net
or visit our E-Forum where mentors and protégés share ideas.
One-on-One Mentoring Program, an Overview:
The MentorNet E-Mentoring Program brings together community college, undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and early career (untenured) faculty
in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with mentors in those fields who provide information, encouragement, and support. These mentoring relationships are designed to span 8 months.
- Fill out a Mentor Profile, which asks for information on:
- Your educational and professional background
- Your preferences for a protégé (such as gender, university, etc.)
- Your comfort in discussing mentoring topics such as school decisions, academic career knowledge, and gender issues among others.
- Wait for a match!
A protégé may choose her/his own mentor (within fourteen days) or let MentorNet automatically match her/him.
The match process is bi-directional, taking into account not only the protégé's preferences
for a mentor, but also your preferences in a protégé. MentorNet does its best
to match pairs as quickly as possible, but it could take awhile to be matched.
- Confirm your availability
Once you've been matched, you will recieve an email notice. From that point, you have 10 days to return to the MentorNet web site and confirm your availability.
This process ensures that the mentor is still interested in being matched with a protégé.
- Exchange communications
Once you have confirmed your availability, the e-mentoring relationship begins immediately. You can view your protégé's profile,
and they have access to see your profile as well.
Both you and your protégé will begin recieving regular discussion suggestions from the MentorNet program that
will help you start and build the relationship.
The MentorNet program lasts approximately 8 months and requires, on average, a little less than 15 minutes per week.
A MentorNet mentor must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- Regular access to email
- At least a college degree or professional background in engineering, science, technology, or math.
- Professional work experience
- Willingness to mentor a student, postdoc, or untenured faculty member via email. (You may state your preference for specific levels in your profile.)
- Willingness to exchange email messages regularly with a protégé over an 8 month period.
I have a background in engineering, science, technology, or math,
but now I work in another area (for example, marketing or management). Am I
still eligible?
Yes, you are.
MentorNet hopes to expose students to the breadth of career opportunities available
to them. Sharing your experiences and your career path could be very
informative to your protégé.
I don't have a degree in engineering, science, technology, or math, but I currently work in
one of those fields. Am I eligible?
Yes, you are.
You have skills, information, and advice that you can share with a student to help her/him persist and succeed in engineering,
science, technology, or math. Some fields, like computer science, are relatively new. Many pioneers in that field
earned degrees in other areas and learned their professional skills on the job.
By signing up for the One-on-One Program, you are committing to exchange regular emails
with an e-mentoring partner. For most mentors, this takes about 15 minutes per week.
You will receive one or more short surveys during the program and at the end of your mentoring relationship as part of
our ongoing effort to improve our program. These are voluntary and we protect the privacy
and anonymity of your responses.
Be flexible, take the initiative, and be responsive. Have confidence that you have precious experiences to communicate, and a little
bit of encouragement from you will go a long way to helping your protégé.
Remember what it was like when you were in your protégé's position. Realize that s/he may not
understand many of the cultural norms and formalities of business and email interaction that you take for granted,
especially in this age of text and instant messaging.
Take the initiative on discussions. Feel free to share your personal experiences, pose
questions, and engage in small talk until a relevant topic for discussion
emerges.
Be responsive to your protégé's questions and comments. If you do not
have the time to offer a full response shortly after you receive an email
message, send a short message letting her/him know you will be in contact when you
have the opportunity.
Unfortunately, no. While we do all we can to find appropriate matches for everyone, the pools of
available mentors and interested protégés do not always match perfectly and we
are unable to match everyone who is interested in participating. If you are not matched in the
One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, you can still provide and/or receive mentoring through our
other discussion groups.
Getting Involved:
Follow this 2-step process:
- Sign In to the MentorNet Community. If you are not yet
a member, you will need to Join the MentorNet Community – it's free and easy to join.
- Follow the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program links to create a mentor profile.
If you are interested in letting your colleagues know about volunteering as a mentor with MentorNet, there are four ways to do so:
- Talk to them about your experience and its rewards.
- Send them to www.MentorNet.net/mentor.
- Send them our 'Call for Mentors' email message.
Copy and paste it directly into an email message.
- Share our mentor brochures with them. Send your request to admin@mentornet.net
and ask us to send some to you!
If you are specifically interested in recruiting faculty members as mentors, you will find specialized
materials here.
MentorNet is always seeking new partners. If you'd like to get your company involved
please let us know at partnerships@mentornet.net.
If you are still waiting for a match, sign into your MentorNet community account, select the 'My Profiles' tab and change your
'Profile Status' from active to hidden. You also have the option of deleting your mentor profile completely.
If you are currently matched, contact program@mentornet.net
and let us know so that we can unmatch you.
I've Been Matched – Now What?
- The guided One-on-One relationship is at the heart of our successful relationships.
MentorNet sends out emails to both mentors and protégés with
discussion suggestions and topics over a period of 8 months.
- MentorNet provides online mentoring guides and training tutorials for both mentors and protégés.
- If you encounter any problem or obstacle – for instance, a non-responsive partner –
we will help you troubleshoot and try to resolve the issue. Please contact
program@mentornet.net.
Once you receive the welcome and introduction e-mail from the MentorNet program, reach out to your
protégé. We encourage your protégé to send you an email as well.
Yes!
If you'd like to have more than one protégé, you can do so by logging into your MentorNet
Community Account. Select the 'My Profiles' tab and change your 'Profile Status' from hidden to active.
- Confirm that your protégé is still an eligible student, postdoc, or facutly member at one of our participating
campuses or professional societies.
- If your protégé is still eligible to participate, s/he needs to sign in to the MentorNet Community and
activate her/his profile. Click on the "Search for a Mentor" link, and select "Search for My Previous Mentor."
- Your protégé can request you as a mentor even if your profile is not active. We will email you to make sure you are still
available for the match and let your protégé know that you are available. There is no need for you to reactivate
your profile.
- Your match will begin again for another 8 months!
- Log into your MentorNet community account, select the 'One-on-One Mentoring' tab.
- Select the first link, 'Match Information.'
- Directly below your protégé's profile is a link that allows you to stop receiving discussion suggestions.
Most of our mentors and protégés never meet face-to-face. MentorNet connects individuals at a distance to overcome
obstacles of time and geography – so there is no formal facilitation of face-to-face meeting in our program, but we do
not discourage it. When face-to-face meetings are possible, they can have a positive influence on the mentoring relationship.
There is no reason that the relationship must be limited to email. If both mentor and protégé agree to communicate
by other means (phone, IM, in person, etc.) we encourage them to do so. The most important point is that the parties
remain in regular contact with each other.
It is not unusual for problems to occur, so don't feel badly. Please just write to us at
program@mentornet.net, and let us know what is
going on and we will try to help!
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