E-mentoring -- Volunteering by E-mail
© Lisa Stambaugh
MentorNet's primary focus is an e-mentoring program, matching community college, undergraduate and graduate level women students with practicing engineers and scientists. The professionals who serve as mentors may be working in public corporations, government institutions, or national research laboratories. They may be working full-time, or - as in my case - part-time. They may be male or female, married or single, with or without children. But what they have in common is this: they want to help today's students become tomorrow's professionals.
It's a unique approach to one-on-one electronic mentoring. In addition to having a "pen-pal" of sorts, both the mentor and the professional learn from one another. Relationships are quickly built, and each immediately has a resource to draw upon. And for a busy student, what could be better than a resource that is available any time of day or night? Well, that is... the e-mail can be sent any time of day or night. I can't keep those college student hours anymore, so the answers may not be sent until the next morning. But I find that as soon as I see a message from my student, Kristal, I'm anxious to answer it.
When I signed up for MentorNet, I assumed I'd be doing most of the "talking" - and that the student would be doing most of the "listening." In fact, in the short time since our match took place, both of us have written some rather lengthy e-mail messages - asking questions, volunteering information, discussing issues that have remained critical during my entire 23+ year working career. Work/family balance. Discrimination. Management vs. staying technical. Whether the thrilling roller coaster ride of a start-up is worth the effort. I've been keeping a list of topics, so that I won't forget anything as we e-mail our way through the school year.
As it happens, Kristal is much closer to the college-application process than I am, having dealt with it in the last few years. My daughter, as a high school junior, is just beginning the process. And so in that case, the mentoring role is on the other foot. We've also discovered that we have many things in common besides being female and enjoying computer science - from our shared love of art, to the fact that we endured long-distance relationships during college, with boyfriends in other cities.
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