Campus Participation Frequently Asked Questions
MentorNet is a 501(c) 3 non-profit educational organization founded in 1997. Its mission is to diversify the global workforce by helping students, postdocs and junior faculty at the university level - especially women and underrepresented minorities - succeed by matching them with mentors and guiding their one-on-one relationships over the Web.
Protégés: We enroll all students at any postsecondary level (college and university) as well as postdocs and junior faculty members in any related field of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and more..
Mentors: We support mentors who have volunteered by guiding their conversations with protégés with timed discussion suggestions, prompts, resources, and the invitation to create a professional profile on our career-focused social network. Most mentors report that they gained communication and leadership skills in addition to the satisfaction of helping a future colleague.
Campuses: MentorNet provides additional "real world" career support directly to students through our one-on-one mentoring program. 95% of our students graduate and a majority explore career opportunities with their mentors. The program also strengthens campus relationships to alumni and private sector affiliates.
Corporations and Organizations: Corporations and organizations that sponsor our programs bolster their presence on and connection to our 100 campuses, fill their talent pipeline with potential future hires, and show their support for our powerful mission to support women and minorities in STEM fields.
MentorNet has formed and sustained approximately 30,000 one-on-one relationships between students and postdocs on 220+ campuses and mentors from more than 1200 employers, 2500-3500 a year. Our community includes 30,000 engineers, scientists, and future engineers and scientists as well as decision-makers from academia, industry, government labs and agencies devoted to mentoring as a means to enabling talent to flourish in these critical fields.
We are funded by annual fees from our campus, corporate, laboratory and society partners and sponsors, and by grants from public and private foundations.
Our cost per protégé is approximately $260, only a portion of which is underwritten by sponsorships by corporations, societies, agencies, organizations, and by foundation grants. Further, official campus acknowledgement and sponsorship of the program in the form of a financial commitment helps the program succeed on campuses.
Any student with an ‘.edu’ email address is welcome. Our protégés and mentors come from all walks of life, ethnic groups, races, over 80 nationalities, and cultures. MentorNet was originally developed in 1997 to support women who even today are still underrepresented in most engineering, science, and mathematics fields. We more recently expanded the program to address the needs of minorities. Now some campuses open it to every eligible student while others direct the program to specific groups of students, as they see fit.
We request that the individual signing for responsibility for a campus' participation in MentorNet represent an official at the institution, e.g. president, provost, dean, department chair, or administrator so that at least one senior official recognizes that the campus is participating in the program.
For its annual fee, each campus receives access to a custom Web-based administrative dashboard. This gives the Rep a one-stop-shop for all the tools, brochures and recruitment material needed to make the program a success. It also enables the Rep to look in on real-time data about participants and a means to view the profiles of and communicate with all protégés from that campus as well as receive composite results from the survey we ask each participant to complete. To view a 2-minute video about the Rep’s Dashboard, visit www.youtube.com/mentornettube.You can also see a 2-minute video for protégés explaining how to use their profile page.
It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete the profile and interview and then about 15 minutes a week for several months to conduct the relationship with the mentor. We know because we’ve asked our 60,000 mentors and protégés. The actual reported average is 14.8 minutes.
1. Protégés and Mentors complete a brief interview/profile
2. They wait for a match to be made by our auto-matching system
3. They confirm their availability. Once a match is made, protégés receive an email notice to agree directly with the mentor to engage the relationship.
4. Exchange communications Once they have confirmed their availability, the e-mentoring relationship begins immediately. They can view each other’s match’s profile and both begin receiving regular discussion suggestions – "prompts" - from the MentorNet program that will help them start and build the relationship.
Through an ever-improving algorithm that takes into account the preferences in a protégés, the protégés preferences in a mentor, and other factors.
MentorNet is an equal opportunity organization. MentorNet will not discriminate against any program participant because of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, national origin (including, without limitation, those for whom English is a second language or those who are immigrants), ancestry, physical or mental disability (including learning disabilities), past history of mental disorder, medical condition including pregnancy, family care leave, cancer and AIDS, status as a disabled veteran or veteran of the wars including Vietnam, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other non-program related factor. Program participation is based on eligibility and will not be unlawfully influenced or unlawfully affected by the characteristics of any program applicant or participant. MentorNet will take affirmative action to ensure that program applicants are considered for participation in the program, and program participants are treated during their participation in the program, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin or any other non-program related factor. Such action will include, but will not be limited to: participation as a member of the MentorNet Community, creating a mentor or protégé profile, being matched in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program and participation in the E-Forum.