The Program Experience

The Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing expe­ri­ence is a holis­tic one that offers mul­ti-lay­ered devel­op­men­tal oppor­tu­ni­ties and sup­port for tal­ent­ed and moti­vat­ed youths in STEMM fields. Read below to find out more about the great fea­tures that our pro­gram has to offer—all at no cost.

A Holis­tic Experience

The core method of tal­ent sup­port is one-on-one men­tor­ing: Each tal­ent­ed youth—the mentee—is matched with a men­tor who is an expert in their field of inter­est. Mentees engage with their men­tors in a goal-ori­ent­ed, one-on-one men­tor­ing rela­tion­ship. Mentees are encour­aged to set spe­cif­ic goals and work on achiev­ing those goals with the sup­port of their men­tor. Research shows that goal-ori­ent­ed men­tor­ing is more effec­tive than pure­ly friend­ship-based mentoring.

Fur­ther­more, research shows that mentees who engage in net­work­ing and project collaborations—in addi­tion to one-on-one mentoring—benefit even more from a men­tor­ing pro­gram. There­fore, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing pro­motes and facil­i­tates small-group projects and pro­gram-wide net­work­ing. Mentees devel­op research com­pe­tence and col­lab­o­ra­tion skills in small-group col­lab­o­ra­tions and can par­tic­i­pate in and ben­e­fit from inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dis­cus­sions and projects. Mentees also prac­tice net­work­ing skills and grow their pro­fes­sion­al net­works as they seek to con­nect with oth­er STEMM experts and tal­ent­ed youths from all over the world in the Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing community.

Relationship graphic

In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing mul­ti-lay­ered tal­ent sup­port, Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing also helps mentees build their own indi­vid­ual learn­ing path­ways. A learn­ing path­way serves two pur­pos­es. First, it acts as a plan that con­tains mile­stones and goals to guide mentees on their path to excel­lence in their respec­tive STEMM field. Men­tors who are domain experts can help the mentees plan and imple­ment their learn­ing path­way. Sec­ond, the learn­ing path­way also serves as a port­fo­lio of their tal­ent devel­op­ment jour­ney. As mentees achieve a major accom­plish­ment (e.g., com­ple­tion of a project, pub­li­ca­tion of a peer-reviewed arti­cle), they can doc­u­ment it in their learn­ing pathway.

A Mul­ti­func­tion­al Platform

Our cus­tom-designed, mul­ti­func­tion­al online plat­form is the vir­tu­al meet­ing place for mentees and men­tors from all over the world to com­mu­ni­cate, exchange ideas and resources, and col­lab­o­rate on inno­v­a­tive and excit­ing projects. Our plat­form offers a suite of com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools (e.g., mes­sag­ing, video­con­fer­enc­ing), a col­lab­o­ra­tion space, and com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures (e.g., forums, group-dis­cus­sion channels).

One cen­tral fea­ture of the online plat­form is that each mentee–mentor pair, called a dyad, has its own spe­cial work­space called the Dyad Area. Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing is pred­i­cat­ed upon goal-ori­ent­ed men­tor­ing and pro­vides goal-set­ting and work­space pages in the Dyad Area to facil­i­tate this process. In the Dyad Area, each mentee sets goals with the guid­ance of their men­tor and keeps an up-to-date record of their goals, tasks, and progress. Men­tors review their mentee’s goals and work in the Dyad Area to pro­vide inter­ac­tive feed­back and addi­tion­al resources.

When mentees and men­tors take advan­tage of all that the Glob­al Tal­ent Men­tor­ing plat­form has to offer, they are tak­ing an essen­tial step in mak­ing their men­tor­ing jour­ney a success!

Read more about our plat­form»

Train­ing and Support

Mentees and men­tors receive reg­u­lar guid­ance and train­ing to opti­mize the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and devel­op­ment of their inter­ac­tions with one anoth­er, as well as their par­tic­i­pa­tion on the plat­form. Train­ing exam­ples include how to align expec­ta­tions between mentee and men­tor, goal set­ting, and a wealth of research-based top­ics on effec­tive mentoring.

To assist par­tic­i­pants on their long-term men­tor­ing jour­ney, each mentee and men­tor is assigned to their own pro­gram rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Our knowl­edge­able pro­gram rep­re­sen­ta­tives engage with men­tors and mentees in sched­uled check-in meet­ings and are avail­able via mes­sage or video chat to answer ques­tions, address any con­cerns, and receive feedback.