How to Make MentorNet Work as a Local Matching Program

If your locally-based organization seeking to advance diversity in engineering and/or science wants to establish and support mentoring relationships which match undergraduate, graduate, and/or postdoctoral students with mentors working professionally, MentorNet can work for you.

How Does MentorNet Work?

After registering as MentorNet Community members, mentors and protégés interested in being matched in MentorNet's One-on-One e-mentoring programs complete online profiles that collect information about their backgrounds and interests and ask about their preferences in a matching partner. Mentors can express their preference for protégé gender, institution of higher education, education level, ethnicity and citizenship. Mentors may also indicate their comfort in discussing topics such as self-confidence, school decisions, and sexual orientation and may provide a short personal statement.

After completing their profiles, protégés may opt either to have MentorNet make a match for them, or to search the mentor pool using criteria such as gender, ethnicity, location, field, career, and alma mater to select a mentor. They are then provided with information about the available mentors who fit their criteria, including their personal statements. The protégé selects a mentor or searches again with adjustments in criteria used, and once the mentor has accepted the match, they begin their 8-month mentoring relationship.

How Do I Make MentorNet Work for My Organization?

To ensure that members of your organization will be matched with mentors or protégés in a specific geographic locale, you need to provide your members specific direction on how MentorNet's One-on-One Programs work, and how they should use the online member profiles to ensure local matches. If desired, your organization may then supplement these individuals' online communications with in-person meetings, seminars, or other events and communications.

Only protégés from colleges or universities which have joined MentorNet, or who are members of professional societies which are MentorNet sponsors, may participate in its One-on-One e-mentoring programs, so the colleges and universities affiliated with your locally-based organization will need to join MentorNet (if they have not already) and you may want to encourage them to join. MentorNet can provide you with a one-page (back and front) datasheet to provide to interested institutions of higher education; the annual cost for institutions of higher education to join MentorNet is $1,000-$4,000, depending upon size. The list of currently participating campuses and information on campus participation can be found at http://www.mentornet.net/documents/partners/campuses/.

In order to make MentorNet work for your locally-based organization, follow these simple steps:

1. Advertise MentorNet to your members via announcements, flyers, etc. MentorNet makes such materials available on its web site, and can provide hard copies to participating colleges and universities, and sponsoring organizations. It is especially important that the colleges and universities attended by your member students have joined MentorNet, otherwise students may not sign up for the program.

2. Tell members to sign up for the One-on-One Programs by going to the MentorNet web site (www.MentorNet.net) and creating either a mentor or protégé profile (they must first join the Community). You may opt to specify a date by which you would like them to create their profile for the One-on-One programs.

3. Advise mentors to set their protégé preferences (school, education level, gender, etc.) to fit the criteria for your targeted pool of potential protégés. For example, if you want to maintain a local presence, then your prospective mentors will want to indicate that they only are willing to be matched with students from the specific universities and colleges in your locale (note that the higher education institution must have joined MentorNet for the year in order for students to sign up).

4. Encourage mentors to write in their personal statement that they are seeking a protégé from your organization/program.

5. Tell your protégés to search for a mentor using the appropriate criteria and read the mentor personal statements before selecting a mentor. Also advise them to select a mentor in their geographic locale in order to participate in your program (city, state/province, and nation will be shown for each mentor who fits the student's profile).