"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
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
- To register you must have an .edu email address. Unless you are with a MentorNet Affliated Association partner
- 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)
Click here 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 30,000
mentor and protégé relationships. We hope you'll join them!
Did You Know?
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.
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.
By The Numbers
30,588Matches Since 19971,245Current Matches804Employers Represented172Protégés
Ready to Match285Mentors Ready to Match
