Abstract: |
MentorNet (www.MentorNet.net), the E-Mentoring Network for Women in Engineering and Science, is a nonprofit organization focused on furthering women's progress in scientific and technical fields through the use of a dynamic, technology-supported mentoring program. Since 1998, nearly 20,000 professionals and students have participated in MentorNet’s signature One-on-One e-mentoring program. MentorNet has collected a great deal of quantitative and qualitative data about their experiences, summaries of which have been provided in a wide variety of presentations and papers. Yet there are aspects of the power and value of these human relationships that are difficult to capture in frequency distributions, percentiles, correlations, and regression analyses, or even in a single quote. And we, as humans, are emotional as well as scientific, and frequently understand that human relationships cannot be completely quantified or otherwise analyzed and tabulated. There are leaps of faith, risk-taking, altruistic and caring, empathy, and a wide variety of emotions and behaviors that guide such relationships. To help provide some insight into these aspects of the value and importance of these relationships, a few participants in MentorNet’s One-on-One program share their experiences with this program in their own words, prompted by a few commonly-asked questions -- What made you sign up for MentorNet? What objectives did you have for the mentoring relationship? What have you learned from the experience? Were your expectations met? Did anything surprise you about the MentorNet program or your relationship? What did you and your partner talk about?
Index Terms mentoring, MentorNet, mentors, protégés. |
