Guidelines for Mentee Nomination and Mentor Volunteer Search 2023–2024

Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing uses a sys­tem­at­ic approach to help iden­ti­fy suit­able mentees and men­tors from around the world. Below, please find the updat­ed guide­lines for the 2023–2024 men­tor­ing cycle.

Overview and Expectations

Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing is a one-of-a-kind online men­tor­ing pro­gram for the world’s most out­stand­ing young tal­ents and dis­tin­guished experts in sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing, math­e­mat­ics, and med­ical sci­ences (STEMM). This active com­mu­ni­ty of young STEMM enthu­si­asts and dis­tin­guished STEMM experts reflects the com­mit­ment of an inter­na­tion­al net­work of part­ner insti­tu­tions locat­ed all over the world team­ing up with Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing to improve the glob­al pipeline of STEMM tal­ent devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion. With the help of this net­work, the first cohort of mentees and men­tors start­ed in the inau­gur­al round of men­tor­ing in the spring of 2021.

Addi­tion­al par­tic­i­pa­tion spots will be added to the pro­gram as part of the fourth cohort in 2024. As a mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ner, we invite you to nom­i­nate youths whom you feel are out­stand­ing in a spe­cif­ic STEMM domain and high­ly moti­vat­ed to devel­op their domain-spe­cif­ic tal­ent. Mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ners are also required to make a con­tri­bu­tion to expand­ing our exist­ing pool of men­tor volunteers.

Out­lined in the fol­low­ing pages are the guide­lines for nom­i­nat­ing poten­tial new mentees and men­tors. As one of our trust­ed part­ners, we are pleased to work with you on shar­ing this long-term tal­ent-devel­op­ment resource with a select group of out­stand­ing youths and dis­tin­guished STEMM experts from your catch­ment area.

For us to suc­ceed in our shared goal of sup­port­ing out­stand­ing tal­ent around the world, we ask that you please care­ful­ly review and fol­low the guide­lines set out in this doc­u­ment. We are excit­ed to move for­ward with this next cycle of men­tor­ing and are ready to work with you to make it a suc­cess. We are always avail­able to com­mu­ni­cate and are hap­py to answer any ques­tions, should they arise (info@globaltalentmentoring.org).

The Admis­sions Process Explained

Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing aims to find the most out­stand­ing mentees and men­tors through its own selec­tion process. This process begins with a “pre-selec­tion” phase in which our mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ners nom­i­nate out­stand­ing stu­dents as mentee nom­i­nees and refer STEMM experts to us as poten­tial men­tor vol­un­teers. Below is an overview of the com­plete admis­sions process from start (nom­i­na­tion) to fin­ish (par­tic­i­pa­tion). Actions com­plet­ed by mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ners are indi­cat­ed in blue.

Impor­tant Dates for the 2023–2024 Appli­ca­tion Cycle
When/By When  What Happens 
15 Sep 2023  Part­ners sub­mit tar­get num­bers of mentees and mentors¹ 
1–15 Oct 2023  Part­ners sub­mit Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form (affirm­ing nom­i­nees’ consent) 
15 Oct 2023  Part­ners have recruit­ed at least the first 3 mentors 
1 Nov–15 Dec 2023  Mentee appli­ca­tion window² 
31 Jan 2024  Part­ners have recruit­ed 100% of the required num­ber of mentors 
1–30 April 2024  Mentee³ and men­tor selec­tion, mentee-men­tor match­ing, and notification 
30 April 2024  Com­mence­ment of men­tor­ing for new­ly matched participants 
1–15 May 2024  Part­ner updates 

Cal­cu­la­tion of Nom­i­na­tion Spots

Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing accepts mentee nom­i­na­tions from its mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ner insti­tu­tions. We use an “8–5‑1 sys­tem”: For every one desired mentee par­tic­i­pant, part­ners nom­i­nate 8 stu­dents. Like­wise, for every one desired mentee par­tic­i­pant, we expect to have 5 qual­i­fied STEMM experts nom­i­nat­ed via our part­ners to become mentors.

It is impor­tant for the pur­pose of fair­ness that more stu­dents apply and be eval­u­at­ed than will be select­ed to par­tic­i­pate as mentees. This is why we ask part­ners to nom­i­nate 8 times as many stu­dents as expect­ed par­tic­i­pat­ing mentees. Like­wise, in order to ensure excel­lent mentee–mentor match­es, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing requires a reserve of qual­i­fied, vet­ted mentors—our reserve “men­tor pool”—that is rough­ly 5 times as large as the num­ber of accept­ed mentees. Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing will assist mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ners in their efforts to recruit men­tor vol­un­teers (e.g., pro­vid­ing pro­mo­tion­al texts, speak­ing at online events for prospec­tive men­tors orga­nized by the part­ner orga­ni­za­tions). The ulti­mate respon­si­bil­i­ty for recruit­ing agreed-upon num­bers of suit­able men­tor vol­un­teers lies, how­ev­er, with the indi­vid­ual mentee-nom­i­nat­ing organizations.

The num­ber of stu­dents each mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ner nom­i­nates depends on two variables:

  • the tar­get num­ber of out­stand­ing stu­dents a part­ner wants to par­tic­i­pate in Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing and
  • the num­ber of qual­i­fied men­tors the part­ner esti­mates it will be able to help recruit by 31 Jan­u­ary 2024.
A Worked Exam­ple Using the 8–5‑1 System

Your insti­tu­tion would like to have 3 out­stand­ing youths par­tic­i­pat­ing in Glob­al Tal­ent Mentoring.

  • You first email us your tar­get num­bers: 3 par­tic­i­pat­ing mentees, and there­by 24 nom­i­nat­ed stu­dents (i.e., 8 mentee nom­i­nees per desired mentee par­tic­i­pa­tion spot) and 15 men­tors (i.e., 5 qual­i­fied STEMM-expert men­tor vol­un­teers per desired mentee par­tic­i­pa­tion spot).
  • You iden­ti­fy and nom­i­nate 24 out­stand­ing, qual­i­fied youths via our Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form. By nom­i­nat­ing the youths, you are telling us that (a) you are con­vinced that your nom­i­nees are a good fit for Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing and are out­stand­ing accord­ing to our mentee nom­i­na­tion cri­te­ria. You are also con­firm­ing that (b) your nom­i­nees have a good idea about what Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing is, are inter­est­ed in apply­ing, and have grant­ed you con­sent in writ­ing to nom­i­nate them.
  • Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing invites these 24 youths to apply to the program.
  • Of those nom­i­nees who fol­low through and com­plete our com­pre­hen­sive online application—ideally all 24—we then select the strongest appli­cants who are the best fit for the pro­gram (in this exam­ple, this would gen­er­al­ly mean the strongest 3 applicants).
  • In line with your expec­ta­tion that 3 of your appli­cants will par­tic­i­pate as mentees, your orga­ni­za­tion helps us to find 15 qual­i­fied STEMM experts who com­mit to vol­un­teer­ing as men­tors in our pro­gram for at least one year.

Respon­si­bil­i­ties of Mentee-Nom­i­nat­ing Partners

Partners Submit Target Numbers of Mentees and Mentors
By when  15 Sep­tem­ber 2023 
What happens  Email us your tar­get num­ber (no names yet) of expect­ed mentee par­tic­i­pants (and there­fore the num­bers of mentee nom­i­nees and men­tor volunteers). 
Please note  While we under­stand your tar­get num­ber may change as you approach the mentee-nom­i­na­tion phase (1–15 Octo­ber 2023), please thought­ful­ly con­sid­er the 8–5‑1 ratio and what kind of a com­mit­ment is real­is­tic for your insti­tu­tion. For exam­ple, if you are tar­get­ing 5 stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate as mentees, that means you would nom­i­nate 40 stu­dents and secure 25 qual­i­fied men­tor volunteers. 
Partners Submit Mentee Nomination Form (Affirming Consent)
When  1–15 Octo­ber 2023 
What happens  On 1 Octo­ber 2023, we will send you an email with unique login cre­den­tials and a link to our Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form. Using our form, you then nom­i­nate out­stand­ing stu­dents to Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing, based on the tar­get num­bers you already sent us. 
Please note  Before you nom­i­nate stu­dents, please first speak with them about Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing, iden­ti­fy those you would like to nom­i­nate as mentees, and get the nec­es­sary con­sent as described lat­er on this page. 
Partners Have Recruited at Least the First 3 Mentors
By when  15 Octo­ber 2023 
What happens  At least 3 qual­i­fied STEMM experts have sub­mit­ted our online Men­tor Vol­un­teer Form. 
Please note  By the end of Sep­tem­ber, we would like to see that you have at least made ini­tial progress towards this goal. Please refer to our men­tor cri­te­ria for details. 
Partners Have Recruited 100% of Required Mentors
By when  31 Jan­u­ary 2024 
What happens  100% of qual­i­fied STEMM experts have sub­mit­ted our online Men­tor Vol­un­teer Form. 
Please note  Please refer to our men­tor cri­te­ria for details. 

Cri­te­ria for Mentee Nominees

Our ide­al mentee can­di­date can demon­strate excep­tion­al achieve­ment in and pas­sion for one spe­cif­ic STEMM field (and not just STEMM as a whole). To guide your search for mentee nom­i­nees, please use the eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria list­ed below.

Criterion  Description 
Age  Mentees should be about 16 years old and enrolled in sec­ondary or ter­tiary edu­ca­tion at the start of men­tor­ing. Minor age vari­ance is accept­able in spe­cial cir­cum­stances. It is impor­tant, how­ev­er, that stu­dents have the nec­es­sary knowl­edge and matu­ri­ty lev­el in order to be capa­ble of work­ing on projects with dis­tin­guished STEMM experts. 
Excel­lent Achieve­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM Field*  Mentees need to demon­strate their STEMM excel­lence through achieve­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM domain, such as ini­ti­at­ing and com­plet­ing sci­en­tif­ic projects, par­tic­i­pat­ing and per­form­ing well in advanced cours­es and sem­i­nars, or receiv­ing awards in inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions or oth­er forms of recog­ni­tion of their excellence. 
Out­stand­ing moti­va­tion in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field*  Mentees already pos­sess an excep­tion­al inter­est in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field and prefer­ably a plan of how they are going to devel­op their career in this field. Focused pas­sion, per­se­ver­ance, and proac­tiv­i­ty are cru­cial traits that will help turn mentees into future experts. 
English*  Mentees are pro­fi­cient in Eng­lish. Eng­lish is the only lan­guage used for com­mu­ni­ca­tion between par­tic­i­pants. Pro­fi­cien­cy in Eng­lish is there­fore a pre­req­ui­site for par­tic­i­pa­tion. Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing is a glob­al pro­gram, and one of its main ben­e­fits is its inter­na­tion­al net­work­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties. Mentees are matched with men­tors from oth­er coun­tries or con­ti­nents. Mentees need to be able to effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate in Eng­lish with oth­ers on the plat­form (e.g., raise ques­tions and under­stand expla­na­tions from mentors). 
Week­ly participation  Reg­u­lar inter­ac­tion is a key to men­tor­ing suc­cess. Mentees should demon­strate a readi­ness to par­tic­i­pate in Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing on a week­ly basis. Mentees are expect­ed to spend at least 60 min­utes per week on inter­act­ing with their men­tor, net­work­ing with oth­er par­tic­i­pants on the plat­form, and work­ing on tasks and projects. The 60 min­utes is a rough min­i­mum expec­ta­tion and does not need to be spent in one block of time. We under­stand that mentees may occa­sion­al­ly have extreme­ly busy weeks (e.g., exams, trav­els). There­fore, we allow for a pause for a week or two in their par­tic­i­pa­tion. How­ev­er, we expect mentees to be proac­tive in com­mu­ni­cat­ing this with their men­tor in advance and not to go for a long peri­od with no communication. 
Long-term commitment  Mentees need to show a will­ing­ness to com­mit to par­tic­i­pa­tion on a week­ly basis for sev­er­al years, giv­en the unique long-term, tal­ent-sup­port focus of Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing, in order to achieve excel­lence in a spe­cif­ic STEMM domain. Mentees’ active par­tic­i­pa­tion includes, but is not lim­it­ed to, one-on-one reg­u­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tion with their men­tor, inter­ac­tions with oth­er par­tic­i­pants in the Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing com­mu­ni­ty, and peri­od­i­cal­ly updates with their pro­gram representative. 

*Please see below for sug­gest­ed pro­ce­dures for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and nomination.

Sug­gest­ed Pro­ce­dures for Mentee Nomination

After stu­dents have been nom­i­nat­ed by our part­ners, we invite all nom­i­nees to apply to Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing via our com­pre­hen­sive online appli­ca­tion. Based on the nom­i­nees’ appli­ca­tions, we will then select mentee par­tic­i­pants. Our selec­tion pro­ce­dure con­sid­ers three main aspects for each student:

  1. a track record of out­stand­ing achieve­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field,
  2. moti­va­tion and pas­sion in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field, and
  3. Eng­lish ability.

The infor­ma­tion below pro­vides a few exam­ples of options for our mentee-nom­i­nat­ing part­ners on how to find suit­able mentee can­di­dates for Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing. We encour­age our part­ner insti­tu­tions to pick any of the meth­ods list­ed there­in or to employ oth­er meth­ods that are appro­pri­ate for their pool of stu­dents. We kind­ly remind our part­ner insti­tu­tions that, at the time of nom­i­na­tion, we will ask about the pro­ce­dure and cri­te­ria they used to nom­i­nate students.

Option  Description  Exam­ples of Pos­si­ble Measures 
Excel­lent Achieve­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM Field  Part­ners should nom­i­nate stu­dents by eval­u­at­ing their achieve­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM domain. Eval­u­a­tions can con­sid­er stu­dents’ aca­d­e­m­ic work AND extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties. Part­ner insti­tu­tions are free to use their own pro­ce­dures to assess this criterion.  Par­tic­i­pa­tion and/or com­ple­tion of sci­en­tif­ic research projects; par­tic­i­pa­tion and/or out­stand­ing achieve­ments in a high­ly selec­tive STEMM pro­gram or STEMM tal­ent devel­op­ment pro­gram; high rank­ings in nation­al or inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions in STEMM domains; out­stand­ing grades in one or more STEMM sub­jects as part of reg­u­lar course­work, or excel­lent stan­dard­ized test results. 
Out­stand­ing moti­va­tion in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field  Part­ner insti­tu­tions are encour­aged to assess stu­dents’ moti­va­tion as part of their mentee-nom­i­na­tion pro­ce­dure, as Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing will also con­sid­er over­all moti­va­tion lev­el as well as moti­va­tion in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field when select­ing mentees.  A track record of time spent on learn­ing in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field on their own; par­tic­i­pa­tion in extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties in STEMM (e.g., sum­mer pro­grams with a STEMM focus or inde­pen­dent projects in STEMM); nature and lev­el of involve­ment in spe­cif­ic extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field (i.e., qual­i­ty and extent of involvement). 
English  Part­ner insti­tu­tions are encour­aged to assess stu­dents’ Eng­lish pro­fi­cien­cy as part of their mentee-nom­i­na­tion pro­ce­dure, as Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing will also con­sid­er this cri­te­ri­on for applicants.  Results from Eng­lish lan­guage pro­fi­cien­cy tests; sub­jec­tive assessments. 

Get Mentee Nom­i­nees’ Informed Con­sent Before You Nom­i­nate Them 

Pri­or to fill­ing out the Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form, please col­lect records demon­strat­ing that all mentee nom­i­nees have done the fol­low­ing before you sub­mit the Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form to us:

  1. reviewed the pub­lic web­site of Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing and under­stand what the pro­gram is about;
  2. under­stand what will hap­pen once you have nom­i­nat­ed them to Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing (i.e., that they will be invit­ed by Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing to com­plete a com­pet­i­tive appli­ca­tion to be select­ed as a mentee for Glob­al Tal­ent Mentoring);
  3. grant­ed your orga­ni­za­tion con­sent to share their names and email address­es with Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing, so that Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing can invite them to apply to the pro­gram; and
  4. grant­ed your orga­ni­za­tion con­sent to inquire with and receive infor­ma­tion from Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing about their appli­ca­tion sta­tus (i.e., if they, as a mentee nom­i­nee, com­plet­ed their appli­ca­tion and were accept­ed as a participant).

Please clar­i­fy these points in writ­ing with the stu­dents you plan to nom­i­nate before you nom­i­nate them and keep records of hav­ing done so for five years. For all stu­dents under the age of 18, please get assur­ances on points 1–2 and con­sents on points 3–4 from both the nom­i­nee and their par­ent or guardian.

Men­tor Vol­un­teer Profile

It is impor­tant to explain to all reg­is­ter­ing STEMM experts that they should indi­cate the name of your insti­tu­tion when fill­ing out our Men­tor Vol­un­teer Form and answer­ing the ques­tion “How did you learn about us?” We need this infor­ma­tion in order to prop­er­ly cred­it your insti­tu­tion for recruit­ing a mentor.

Criterion  Description 
Dis­tinc­tive exper­tise in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field  Men­tors are experts in their respec­tive STEMM field. Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing takes great care to ensure its out­stand­ing mentees are excep­tion­al­ly qual­i­fied and moti­vat­ed to par­tic­i­pate. These out­stand­ing young tal­ents thus require men­tors who have demon­strat­ed exper­tise in their respec­tive STEMM field, for exam­ple, through a high-lev­el ter­tiary degree (e.g., a PhD) or equiv­a­lent R&D expe­ri­ence, inter­na­tion­al pub­li­ca­tions, patents, or oth­er out­stand­ing pro­fes­sion­al accom­plish­ments in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field. 
30 min­utes per week  Reg­u­lar inter­ac­tion is a key to a mentee’s suc­cess. Men­tors should demon­strate a readi­ness to spend approx­i­mate­ly 30 min­utes per week, on aver­age, with their respec­tive mentee. Men­tors are, of course, free to invest more time men­tor­ing and net­work­ing on the plat­form. The 30 min­utes is a rough min­i­mum expec­ta­tion and does not need to be spent in one block of time. 
Long-term commitment  Men­tors should be com­mit­ted to offer­ing long-term sup­port to their respec­tive mentee. Giv­en the unique long-term sup­port focus of Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing for mentees to achieve excel­lence in a spe­cif­ic STEMM field, we ask that men­tors be just as com­mit­ted to vol­un­teer­ing for a longer peri­od, ide­al­ly for sev­er­al years, but at least for one year. 
English  Eng­lish is the only lan­guage used in our glob­al pro­gram and men­tors should there­fore be able to effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate in English. 
No crim­i­nal record  The behav­ior of all men­tors must be legal­ly unques­tion­able. Our plat­form is designed to detect any mis­use. Nev­er­the­less, it is imper­a­tive that all par­tic­i­pants have no crim­i­nal record. 
Pre­vi­ous men­tor­ing expe­ri­ence (option­al) Suc­cess­ful men­tors pos­sess didac­tic skills that enable them to effec­tive­ly lis­ten, guide, encour­age, and build a trust­ing rela­tion­ship. For this rea­son, we are very hap­py about STEMM experts who are already expe­ri­enced in men­tor­ing or oth­er­wise sup­port­ing tal­ent­ed youth. How­ev­er, such skills are not a pre­req­ui­site for becom­ing a men­tor. We expect all men­tors to be open to work­ing on the devel­op­ment of men­tor­ing skills. 

Fre­quent­ly Asked Questions

Q: What exact­ly is meant by “STEMM” and how does this impact mentee nom­i­na­tions and men­tor recruitment?

A: “STEMM” refers to sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing, math­e­mat­ics, and med­ical sci­ences. The term med­ical sciences—the sec­ond M in STEMM—denotes the sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy of med­i­cine (med­ical research) as opposed to the every­day clin­i­cal prac­tice of med­i­cine. Our pro­gram typ­i­cal­ly caters to mentees with inter­ests in fields such as life sci­ences (includ­ing bio­log­i­cal sci­ences, bio­med­ical sci­ences, and oth­er med­ical sci­ences), com­put­er and infor­ma­tion sci­ences, engi­neer­ing, math­e­mat­ics and sta­tis­tics, and phys­i­cal sci­ences such as physics, chem­istry, astron­o­my, and earth sci­ences. Due to the devel­op­ment of new fields and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es that often com­bine STEMM fields and use new nomen­cla­tures, we make deci­sions about includ­ing oth­er STEMM fields on a case-by-case basis. If you have any ques­tions, please ask us.

Mentees: We use the term “STEMM” as an easy way to refer to the many sub­fields with­in STEMM. We expect, how­ev­er, that mentee nom­i­nees are tal­ent­ed in and pas­sion­ate about one spe­cif­ic domain with­in STEMM, and do not mere­ly pos­sess a gen­er­al­ized inter­est in STEMM as a whole.

Men­tors: Prac­tic­ing sci­en­tists, pro­fes­sors, researchers, engi­neers, and devel­op­ers with a PhD or equiv­a­lent R&D expe­ri­ence in STEMM fields are some of the exam­ples of the types of pro­fes­sions of our mentors.

Q: Can I re-nom­i­nate a student?

A: Yes. We know that stu­dents’ inter­ests, abil­i­ties, and moti­va­tions are grow­ing, and we hon­or this poten­tial. There­fore, nom­i­nees from a pre­vi­ous year can be nom­i­nat­ed again, if you feel that their devel­op­ment in the past year has been out­stand­ing. If you nom­i­nate a stu­dent a sec­ond time, we will ask you to explain your rea­son for doing so when you com­plete the Mentee Nom­i­na­tion Form.

Q: When is a nom­i­nat­ed STEMM expert con­sid­ered a mentor?

A: STEMM experts inter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing as men­tors first com­plete and sub­mit our online Men­tor Vol­un­teer Form on our web­site. We review the infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by each vol­un­teer­ing expert and invite those vol­un­teers to a face-to-face online inter­view whose qual­i­fi­ca­tions fit our men­tor cri­te­ria. After a face-to-face online inter­view, we make a final deter­mi­na­tion about whether we can accept a vol­un­teer­ing STEMM expert as a men­tor in our program.

Q: What hap­pens to men­tors who do not get matched?

A: Accept­ed men­tors who are not imme­di­ate­ly matched (i.e., we do not have mentees in their fields) remain in our “men­tor pool.” As par­tic­i­pa­tion needs are sub­ject to change (e.g., a matched men­tor unex­pect­ed­ly drops out, a mentee changes their STEMM focus, etc.), an as-yet unmatched men­tor from our men­tor pool may be invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate at any time. We stay in touch with men­tors who have not been matched so they know how the pro­gram is developing.