Mentees and Mentors

Mentees and Mentors

Men­tor­ing is a col­lab­o­ra­tive at-will rela­tion­ship in which one person—a mentor—shares their knowl­edge, skills, and expe­ri­ence with anoth­er per­son, a mentee, who is typ­i­cal­ly not as knowl­edge­able or expe­ri­enced and ben­e­fits from the mentor’s guid­ance and per­spec­tive. Men­tor­ing is con­sid­ered a high­ly effec­tive tal­ent devel­op­ment mea­sure that can yield espe­cial­ly pos­i­tive results in gift­ed stu­dents. Through this sup­port, mentees can gain knowl­edge in their field of inter­est, learn spe­cif­ic skills, and receive valu­able advice on their career plans and advancement.

Outstanding Mentees and Mentors in STEMM

Build­ing on these prin­ci­ples, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing con­nects stu­dents who are out­stand­ing in one or more STEMM areas as mentees with dis­tin­guished STEMM experts as mentors.

Read more about our mentee cri­te­ria»
Read more about our men­tor pro­file»

Committed Engagement

Mentees and men­tors at Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing make a com­mit­ment to them­selves and fel­low mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty to fol­low through on their shared men­tor­ing jour­ney. As part of this com­mit­ment, we ask that all par­tic­i­pants com­mit to proac­tive, fre­quent, long-term, respect­ful engage­ment with one another.

Proactive

We want our com­mu­ni­ty to be a live­ly, dynam­ic one. Have a ques­tion about black holes? Ask in Forums! Want to learn more about robot­ics with oth­ers? Start a study group! Our com­mu­ni­ty is full of poten­tial and a place where great ideas are born—but this can only hap­pen when mentees and men­tors com­mit to active­ly engag­ing with one anoth­er. In par­tic­u­lar, we expect each mentee to proac­tive­ly seek out their mentor’s help. All men­tors par­tic­i­pate on a vol­un­tary basis. It is there­fore the respon­si­bil­i­ty of each mentee to show ini­tia­tive when reach­ing out to their men­tor. Proac­tive engage­ment also means that par­tic­i­pants keep in touch with their pro­gram rep­re­sen­ta­tive, who is there to help ensure that each par­tic­i­pant has a pos­i­tive men­tor­ing experience.

Consistent

One impor­tant aspect of com­mit­ted engage­ment is fre­quent, con­sis­tent par­tic­i­pa­tion. Reg­u­lar inter­ac­tion between mentee and men­tor is a crit­i­cal fac­tor of a suc­cess­ful men­tor­ing rela­tion­ship. Week­ly mentee–mentor inter­ac­tions are ide­al. How­ev­er, the actu­al fre­quen­cy of inter­ac­tion in a giv­en men­tor­ing pair (i.e., a dyad) can be adjust­ed to the needs of the mentee and men­tor. It is impor­tant that mentee–mentor inter­ac­tions are reg­u­lar and consistent—be they on a week­ly, bi-week­ly, or month­ly basis.

Mentees are expect­ed to devote a min­i­mum of 30 min­utes per week to their Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion to proac­tive­ly inter­act­ing with their men­tors, the mentees should spend time prepar­ing for their next inter­ac­tions with their men­tors, fol­low­ing up with tasks after meet­ings (e.g., work­ing on activ­i­ties sug­gest­ed by a men­tor), and par­tic­i­pat­ing in forum dis­cus­sions in the com­mu­ni­ty area. Research shows that reg­u­lar meet­ings between mentees and men­tors lead to stronger men­tor­ing rela­tion­ships and bet­ter men­tor­ing outcomes.

Long-Term

One unique aspect of Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing is its long-term focus. Mentees start in the pro­gram at about age 16 and can par­tic­i­pate for around a decade (i.e., up to ear­ly-career mile­stones such as com­plet­ing a PhD). We there­fore look for mentees and men­tors who are seri­ous about mak­ing a par­tic­i­pa­tion com­mit­ment that ide­al­ly lasts for sev­er­al years.

We ask all mentees to com­mit to long-term par­tic­i­pa­tion and men­tors to con­sid­er long-term vol­un­teer­ing (e.g., start­ing with one year).

Mentees and men­tors have the chance to eval­u­ate their expe­ri­ence and their dyad part­ner. Some­times a change in part­ner may be deemed nec­es­sary. This can hap­pen for a vari­ety of rea­sons. In such cas­es, the par­tic­i­pant will be care­ful­ly rematched with a suit­able dyad partner.

Respectful

Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing stands for diver­si­ty in STEMM. Par­tic­i­pants come from many coun­tries all over the world and reflect var­i­ous cul­tures, reli­gions, lan­guages, and out­looks. Respect­ful inter­ac­tions are expect­ed of all par­tic­i­pants, and dis­crim­i­na­tion of any kind is not tolerated.