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"As young women look to make decisions on graduate school, jobs and careers, what can be most valuable is hearing from women and men who went through the same decision processes." - MentorNet Mentor
- 757 Companies Represented
- 168 Mentors from IBM
- 50 Mentors from 3M
- 47 Mentors from Texas Instruments
- 185 Mentors Available to be matched
- 1,443 Mentors Currently matched
- 45% Female Mentors
- 55% Male Mentors
- A range of occupations, including engineers, scientists, programmers, CEOs, and many more!
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MentorNet's One-on-One E-Mentoring Program
The MentorNet E-Mentoring Program is designed to provide information, encouragement, and support to community
college, undergraduate, and graduate students, postdocs, and untenured faculty. Protégés are matched in one-on-one e-mentoring relationships with
mentors who have work experience, and MentorNet provides the
training, coaching and support for them to pursue an 8-month mentoring
relationship.
The program has proven effective by providing "real world" information, encouragement, advice, and access to networks that are otherwise often unavailable to women and people of color in the male-dominated fields of engineering and science. This is why over 90% of participants would recommend MentorNet's One-on-One E-Mentoring Program to a friend or colleague.
Protégés in the MentorNet program consistently report:
- An increased confidence in their success in science or engineering.
- An increased desire to pursue a career in their field.
- A high degree of satisfaction with their MentorNet experience.
"My mentor always gives me the encouragement that I need. Sometimes those few words make a big difference to me."
Mentors in the MentorNet program consistently report:
- The personal satisfaction of knowing that they have helped someone else.
- Professional development, including better mentoring skills to use within their company.
- Increased levels of commitment to their fields and their employers.
- Opportunities for self-reflection and self-renewal.
"I hope [my protégé] is getting as much out of it as I am."
Read what mentors and protégés have to say about the benefits of MentorNet in their own words.
Protégés:
- Fill out a Protégé Profile, which asks for basic information and interest in discussing common mentoring topics, such as school decisions, work/family balance, and gender issues. This profile also identifies a protégé's preferences for a mentor, such as gender, field of work, location, ethnicity, alma mater, and citizenship. A protégé can fill out a protégé profile at any time of year, as long as her/his college or university is a current participant.
- Immediately after creating a profile, a protégé is presented with the mentor profiles (minus the mentor's name and email) of up to 5 potential matches. Protégés can choose a match, opt to let MentorNet try to match them automatically, or come back anytime within the next 14 days to check for new potential matches.
- If no mentors are available immediately, protégés can revise their profile, changing preferences to be less restrictive, to try to better the chances of finding a match.
- If a protégé opts immediately to let MentorNet try to make the match, s/he will no longer have the option to choose a mentor.
- If a protégé does not immediately choose a mentor or opt to let MentorNet try to make the match, s/he will receive 2 reminder e-mails encouraging her/him to come back and check for, and choose from, potential matches.
- If a protégé does not choose a mentor within 14 days, MentorNet will automatically attempt to find a match for her/him, based on the information in the protégé profile.
- No matter how a protégé is matched (s/he chooses or MentorNet chooses), we will check that the mentor is still available. Once the mentor's availability is confirmed,
the e-mentoring relationship begins immediately. Mentor and protégé can view each others' profiles through the MentorNet web site to learn about their partner.
Mentor and protégé begin receiving regular discussion suggestions from the MentorNet program to help
start and build the relationship.
- If the protégé chooses a mentor and the mentor is not available, the protégé will have another 14 days to view potential matches and choose again before MentorNet
attempts to automatically make a match.
- The official MentorNet program lasts for 8 months.
- Protégés may edit their profile or delete it at any time while they are not matched.
Mentors:
- Fill out a Mentor Profile,
which asks for information on educational and professional backgrounds,
preferences for a protégé (such as gender) and comfort in discussing
common mentoring topics such as school decisions, academic career knowledge and
gender issues.
- Protégés may choose their own
mentor (within a limited time frame) or let MentorNet automatically match them. The match process is bi-directional, taking into account not only the protégé's preferences for a mentor, but also the
mentor's preferences in a protégé. MentorNet does its best to match mentors as quickly as possible, but it could take a while to be matched.
- Once a mentor has been tentatively matched, s/he receives an email
notice that gives 10 days to return to the MentorNet site and
confirm the mentor's availability. This ensures that the mentor is still interested in
being matched with a protégé.
- Once the mentor's availability is confirmed,
the e-mentoring relationship begins immediately. Mentor and protégé can view each others' profiles through the MentorNet web site to learn about their partner.
Mentor and protégé
begin receiving regular discussion suggestions from the MentorNet program to help
start and build the relationship.
- The official MentorNet
program lasts approximately 8 months.
- Mentors may hide their
profile at any time if they do not wish to be available to be chosen. They
may also edit their profiles at any time, or delete them completely (if not matched).
All it takes is 20 minutes per week.
Requirements to Be a Mentor:
To be a MentorNet Mentor you must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- You have a degree and at least 2 years professional work experience in engineering, science, technology, mathematics, medicine or related disciplines.
- You are willing to mentor, via email and for an extended period, a MentorNet protégé, who will be
- a student at an institution of higher education at any level, 1st year through Ph.D.; or
- a postdoctoral researcher or scholar at an institution of higher education or laboratory; or
- an untenured faculty member.
(You will be able to state your preference when you fill out your profile.)
Requirements to Get a Mentor:
A MentorNet Protégé must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- You are pursuing a degree, certificate, or postdoc in engineering, science, technology, mathematics, medicine or are an early-career faculty person within these fields.
- Currently enrolled as a community college, undergraduate, or graduate student, OR employed as a postdoctoral scholar or untenured faculty member.
- Enrolled or employed at a college or university partnering with MentorNet, OR associated with one of MentorNet's Affiliated Partners Plus.
- Willing to exchange email messages regularly with a mentor over an 8-month period.
Follow this 2-step process:
1) Sign In to the MentorNet Community. If you are not yet a member, you may Join the MentorNet Community at any time.
2) Follow the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program links to create a Mentor or Protégé Profile.
See our One-on-One E-Mentoring Program Frequently Asked Questions for mentors or protégés.
Academic Career E-Mentoring Program program still exists. It has recently been merged with our main One-on-One E-Mentoring Program. Find out more.
Since 1998, MentorNet has enabled the creation of over 26,000 mentor and protégé relationships. We hope you'll join them!
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