‘“Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life. I don’t care what you do for a living—if you do it well I’m sure there was someone cheering you on or showing the way. A mentor.” — Denzel Washington
Many of us have had mentors in our professional lives. Whether formal or informal, closer or further from our own professional area, mentors are a positive influence on our paths: they provide encouragement, a sounding board for new ideas, and a safe space to discuss tricky issues. At CamAWiSE we believe that mentoring is a great way to support professional development and that it closely aligns to our goals to support women in a STEMM career. The CamAWiSE Mentoring Programme established itself in 2020, where it first supported and connected professionals in STEMM in the local community.
Following two successful cohorts of the programme in 2020 and 2021, last year the programme expanded, collaborating with Sierra Leone AWiSE. Sierra Leone AWiSE is a regional network for Sierra Leonean Women in STEMM, and was founded in 2013 with support from CamAWiSE. The partnership widened participation beyond the local Cambridge community, and brought the benefits of mentoring to a group of mentees based in Africa.
The 2022 programme was our largest so far, both in terms of participant numbers, and the scope of activities we provided on the programme. We had 25 pairs of mentors and mentees, including 20 mentees who signed up via the collaboration with Sierra Leone AWiSE. The six-month programme was additionally supported with:
Dedicated orientation sessions for mentors and mentees
Cohort calls for mentees explored goal setting and developing SMART objectives – to assist them in developing their goals within the mentoring framework. This was further supported with a focussed feedback session.
The third cohort call brought both mentors and mentees together to discuss the highlights from their experiences in the programme, challenges they had faced, and the benefits of networking.
The cohort calls provided a platform for peer-to-peer learning and connecting with the wider group. The mentors and mentees shared their motivations and exchanged potential challenges for participants coming from different locations and disciplines.
‘If only there was something like this available to me early in my career. A really great way to get an independent view and advice in a scientific setting’ – 2022 participant
The feedback from the mentors and mentees has been overwhelmingly positive, with the opportunity to create fulfilling professional connections. Sierra Leonean mentees in particular had an opportunity to connect with an international mentor, and explore new approaches for grant and manuscript writing, research planning and publications. Read about one of the mentee’s journey in the blog post by Patience James, where she shared the benefits that mentoring brought to her.
We are keen to make the CamAWiSE Mentoring Programme an inclusive and valuable opportunity for as many women as possible. The Mentoring Programme 2023 will explore new ways of engaging new additional groups and communities. If you are interested in bringing mentoring to your community, do reach out! We will open for applications in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
Comments