Global Talent Mentoring’s 2023 International Expert Meeting

On 15–18 May 2023, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing held an Inter­na­tion­al Expert Meet­ing.  As a research-based pro­gram, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing active­ly engages with the lat­est research in tal­ent devel­op­ment, men­tor­ing, and STEMM edu­ca­tion. To this end, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing brings togeth­er lead­ing experts in these areas to dis­cuss cut­ting-edge research and how best to use research find­ings to opti­mize the program.

The theme of the Inter­na­tion­al Expert Meet­ing was “The Trans­for­ma­tive Pow­er of Men­tor­ing for Reach­ing Excel­lence in STEMM.” Dur­ing the four-day event held in Col­orado Springs in the Unit­ed States, pro­gram direc­tors Prof. Dr. Hei­drun Stoeger and Prof. Drs. Albert Ziegler wel­comed six lead­ing experts from the sci­ence of effec­tive men­tor­ing and select­ed STEMM fields. Each expert gave an excel­lent pre­sen­ta­tion about their research and engaged in dis­cus­sions afterwards.

Specif­i­cal­ly, three lead­ing men­tor­ing experts talked about aspects of effec­tive men­tor­ing. Prof. Dr. Thomas E. Keller, from Port­land State Uni­ver­si­ty, pre­sent­ed “Mean­ing­ful Engage­ment in Men­tor­ing Net­works for Stu­dents in Sci­ence and Med­i­cine.” Prof. Dr. Paul R. Her­nan­dez, from Texas A&M, spoke on “Webs of Sci­ence: The For­ma­tion and Impacts of Effec­tive Men­tor­ship Net­works for Under­rep­re­sent­ed Stu­dents Pur­su­ing STEM Careers.” Prof. Dr. Erin Dolan, from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia, talked about “The Dark Side of Devel­op­ment: When Men­tor­ing is Prob­lem­at­ic and What to Do About It?”

Three lead­ers in engi­neer­ing fields pre­sent­ed on the cur­rent sta­tus and needs of men­tor­ing in engi­neer­ing. Prof. Dr. Sai­fur Rah­man, cur­rent Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Insti­tute of Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tron­ics Engi­neers (IEEE) from Vir­ginia Tech, spoke about the “IEEE’s Role in pre-Uni­ver­si­ty and Uni­ver­si­ty STEMM Edu­ca­tion.” Prof. Dr. Min Zhou, from Geor­gia Tech, pre­sent­ed “Men­tor­ing at All Lev­els and Stages of Career in Engi­neer­ing.” Prof. Dr. Gunar Schirn­er, from North­east­ern Uni­ver­si­ty, talked about “Guid­ing Along the Path to Unleash Excel­lence: What Men­tor­ing Looks Like in Acad­e­mia and Industry.”

The pre­sen­ta­tions and ensu­ing dis­cus­sions yield­ed numer­ous insights for opti­miz­ing Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing and men­tor­ing for tal­ent devel­op­ment more gen­er­al­ly. The 2023 Inter­na­tion­al Expert Meet­ing led to a fruit­ful inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dia­logue about how best to sup­port the STEMM tal­ent devel­op­ment of out­stand­ing, hard­work­ing youths.