Friday, May 16, 2008

AWG's pilot mentoring program accepting mentees

The Association for Women Geoscientists has been putting together a pilot mentoring project over the past few months. They've been accepting mentor applications for some time, and now they're making their last call for both mentors and mentees.

From the AWG e-news:

The AWG peer mentoring pilot project has been enrolling mentors since our kick off at the AWG Transitions Convention. We have an interesting mix of AWG mentors, professors, environmental professionals, research lab scientists, and oil and gas professionals. Some are experienced mentors; others are excited to learn how to pass along their experience. We now have more mentors than mentees now but are still accepting mentor applications.

Most people have had informal mentoring relationships over the course of their career. Some employers provide on the job training that is called mentoring. However, there are many reasons to work with an external mentor in a facilitated mentoring relationship. Are you wondering what your next career move should be? Do you need to find someone who can help you:

o Find new role models?
o Gain feedback in a confidential relationship?
o Enhance your networking skills?
o Tap the career wisdom of the senior members of the organization?
o Gain insights into the professional culture?
o Gain wider friendships?
o Gain increased skills to self-direct your career?

Maybe it is time for you to work with a mentor. Noted women’s career advocate, Sheila Wellington, reports, “Mentors are more important to career success than hard work, more important than talent, more important than intelligence. Why? Because you need to learn how to operate in the work world – whether in a corporation, a professional firm, a nonprofit, a university, or the public sector – and mentors can teach you how.”

Don’t let this opportunity pass! Visit the website soon to fill out a mentor or mentee profile: http://www.gulfcreek.com/AWG/. Mentees must be AWG members.

The website provides a matching process that allows mentors and mentees to each have a choice in the assignment increasing the likelihood of a successful mentoring relationship. The site offers a training tutorial for mentors and mentees, an open access library of mentoring articles, and additional training materials for participants. The site also automates a monthly support program with suggestions for ways to use a mentoring relationship for competency development.

To our knowledge, the AWG Peer Mentoring Center is the first web based mentoring program designed specifically to connect women in a scientific professional organization for coaching or mentoring relationships. Many professional scientific organizations are now embracing mentoring programs for their membership or their student members. Our program combines elements successful in workplace mentoring programs with those from telementoring programs that support students. Our program will teach you about mentoring and support your mentoring relationship.

This is a unique opportunity to enhance your career and help AWG to develop an important new program to benefit our membership. Feel free to contact me with any questions, Elizabeth.pottorff@state.co.us. Thanks!


More information and forms for signing up here. Mentees must be AWG mentors; mentors can be anyone.

(Also, I'm not sure why they don't list the mining industry as employing mentors. If you work with ore deposits and want to help mentor, your expertise might be needed!)

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