Mentoring Month 2024
Mentoring Month 2024 programme from start to finish and beyond
Introduction
Leaving College and heading out into the 'real world' is a huge moment of transition for students. The disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing effects left many students feeling a little adrift and uncertain about their futures.
Thus, now, more than ever, personal networks and the advice of others really matter and can be of great benefit in helping new graduates navigate this and thrive. We know that a wide variety of skills and experience exists within our alumni community and that drawing upon this wealth of knowledge is invaluable for our students.
To address this gap and provide support, the Alumni Relations and Development Office (ARDO) piloted its first Mentoring Month programme in collaboration with the Trinity's Women Network and the Trinity Business and City Association in March 2023. The first iteration of this programme saw 28 successful matches between second-year undergraduates and volunteer alumni.
With the second edition of this programme, Mentoring Month 2024, we aimed to develop a bigger and better programme. Our vision was to not only expand our mentee group from second years to any student, but also to present an opportunity for all alumni from any professional background to (re)connect with the College and inspire the next generation of graduates.
AIMS
Networking
To provide students with opportunities to enhance their professional networks whilst also creating occasions for alumni to (re)connect with one another and expand their social and professional contacts.
Personal Development
To offer students a chance to identify their existing skills and recognise areas for growth, as well as support them in developing new competencies, enhancing their personal and professional skill sets.
Engagement
To provide a way for alumni to engage with the College in an alternative but highly meaningful way, thereby enhancing bonds to the College and recognising the value of 'giving back' in time and knowledge.
Structure
We designed the programme with the awareness that both our students and alumni lead very busy lives. Given the geographical spread of our Trinity alumni, an online mentoring programme also seemed most appropriate.
Thus, Mentoring Month's loosely structured framework consisted of:
- Attending a launch call providing training for mentors and mentees
- Students prompted to outline 3 goals/aims prior to their first session
- Minimum of 3 sessions during the month of March (goal setting, progress report, review)
Timeline
Early February
Applications Open
Communication sent to all students and alumni inviting them to apply to partake in the Mentoring Month 2024 programme.
16 February
Applications Close
Applications close for both mentors and mentees. The hand matching now begins.
26 February
Matches are announced
After a careful and considerate hand matching process, matches are announced and pairs are connected on Trinity Connect.
29 February
Meet your Match: Launch Call
The online launch call is hosted. This call is both a training call, to give mentors and mentees some helpful advice on how to approach the month and make the most of it, as well as an information session. Any questions about the programme are answered, and the attendees have the opportunity to virtually meet their match before their first session.
1 March
Start of Mentoring Month 2024
Official start of Mentoring Month 2024 programme. Participants will now meet a minimum of 3 times throughout the month to work on the goals set out during the launch call.
A detailed report on the whole process of Mentoring Month can be found at the end of this WebStory, in the "Process" section.
Testimonials
Hear from some of mentoring pairs about their experience on this Mentoring Month 2024 programme
"It was such a positive experience being able to share my experiences of the workplace with someone who's soon going to be starting out. As a bonus, the process of articulating what I'd learned to date was helpful for me personally as I started to explore new opportunities myself. "
Olivia Warburton (1992)
Mentor to Oli Thomas (2022)
The most enjoyable aspects of the Mentoring Month were undoubtedly the Zoom calls. On these weekly calls, my mentor and I both worked towards fulfilling my goals, but also prioritised genuine connection. Rather than feeling like a strictly transactional relationship, my mentor and I shared our common experiences of being Trinity students and discussed our mutual interests (cinema, literature, arts etc). Rooted in the discussion of post-graduate opportunities, these conversations felt both deeply productive, yet reassuringly relaxed. Far from a sterile, didactic transfer of knowledge, the weekly calls provided a space for us to truly connect. I look forward to seeing my mentor in person over summer, to both continue our discussions of post-graduate opportunities and reflect on our times at Trinity.
Owen Wright (2022)
Mentee of Paula Beegan (2000)
Ash and Elysha
One of our standout pairings was Ash and Elysha. Despite them studying two completely different subjects (Elysha, History and Ash, Natural Science), we were able to match them based on their common professional interests. In her application, Elysha requested support from someone in the video gaming industry. She was eager to develop her portfolio and learn how to maximise her time at Trinity. Since we did not have anyone initially apply with those professional skills, we personally reached out to Ash,
a Trinity alumnus and Senior Content Developer at Jagex Ltd. Both Ash and Elysha thoroughly enjoyed their collaboration, with Elysha achieving all the goals she set for the month. They have since met in person, with Ash giving Elysha a tour of the Jagex offices and introducing her to his team, helping her build a network within the industry. Elysha continues to work towards her ambition of a career in the video games industry.
Ash Bridges (2000)
Mentor
What did you gain from the experience and what did you enjoy most about mentoring month?
By bringing my mentee into our studio and introducing her to a range of different narrative designers, I actually learnt a lot about their very different routes into the job, and the different approaches they brought to it - one had a very rigorous background of work experience and training, while another had evolved into the role more organically. Comparing their perspectives was highly educational for me. I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to look through my mentee's portfolio, seeing the potential of what she might get to do in future.
What was the most insightful conversation you had with your mentee?
My mentee had asked about different game engines, and their relative suitability for a designer with limited technical experience. As my own experience is limited there, I reached out to colleagues for suggestions, and got an incredibly wide range of contrasting recommendations to share with my mentee - far more than I'd ever realised existed - well worth remembering for helping future trainees.
Elysha Smith (2023)
Mentee
Why did you apply to take part in Trinity’s Mentoring Month?
I took part because I wanted to make the most of all that Trinity had to offer as a college and thought that this would be a fantastic opportunity to get advice and guidance from someone who was in the career sector that I was interested in
What goals did you set and did you achieve them?
My 3 goals were to: understand the skills necessary to get into the world of video games; gain insight on how to make the most of my time at university to develop my prospects; and to get advice on my portfolio.
I was able to achieve all of these, but the most important thing I gained from meeting Ash was the confidence and encouragement to actually continue working on my portfolio. It helped me to see that working in video games was a very viable option for me and that I could do it. it was such a reinvigorating experience for my dreams of working with video games.
What was the highlight of your mentoring month?
The highlight of mentoring month has to be the trip Ash arranged for me to Jagex to see the studio. Ash and I also had an insightful conversation about video game companies sacrificing creative integrity and a relationship with their fans for the sake of profit
Results and Feedback
75 successful pairings in a range of industries and subjects
80% of survey respondents* felt that they were well matched with their mentor/mentee
100% of survey respondents* said that they either hope or will definitely stay in touch with their match
85% of survey respondents* rated Mentoring Month 4 or above (out of 5)
92.6% of mentors who responded to the survey* would consider taking part in Mentoring Month again
85% of students who responded to the survey* felt that they achieved all of the goals they had identified
*28 students and 27 alumni responded to our survey
Looking into the Future
As we finish with Mentoring Month 2024, we are excited to take our learnings from the previous two years forward into the future.
Our experiences, practices and successes with alumni to student mentoring has inspired a new and upcoming project: alumni to alumni mentoring. Whilst Mentoring Month is primarily intended for the students' development, we recognise that a programme of this kind also provides a valuable opportunity for our alumni to learn from one another and develop substantive social and professional networks.
Our aim with this upcoming project is to continue providing our graduates with personal and professional development support, even after they have left Trinity.
And whilst Mentoring Month is centred around career development, we are ultimately aiming to strengthen the bonds between students, be that past, current or future. Building on the experiences and feedback of the past two years, we look forward to evolving the programme into what is certainly going to be an even bigger and better Mentoring Month 2025.
This WebStory was written and designed by Sophie Mawby-Groom (Student Experience Officer) and Elena Gebhard (Alumni Events Assistant).
If you have any questions, feedback or comments, please get in touch at mentoring@trin.cam.ac.uk.
To learn more about alumni to alumni mentoring and/or Mentoring Month 2025, please make sure you are signed up to our monthly newsletter. If you currently do not receive those, please get in touch with our team at alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk.
The Programme Process from Design to Execution
A detailed report on every step that was taken to conceptualise, create and execute Mentoring Month 2024.
Designing the Programme & Application Forms
Designing the programme required purposeful consideration of what it is we wanted to achieve in our given timeframe. Wanting to increase the number of participants after last year's successful pilot, we decided to broaden both the subject areas and students targeted for this year's programme. Instead of only including second-years, we invited all undergraduate students from any subject to apply. A detailed action plan was set up to guide the entire process of the programme.
Creating a succinct branding for this year's programme was an important step in our design process. Having a recognisable and distinct logo for all of our communications and advertisements was an opportunity for us to signify our intentions and create a memorable visual of the programme. The two triangles in Trinity's distinctive colours, represent the collaboration and mentoring relationship between our alumni (blue triangle) and our students (yellow triangle).
Designing the platform (Trinity Connect) was done in collaboration with Aluminate, our exclusive e-networking platform. Designing an online space for the programme, which included an informative landing page, groups for both mentors and mentees to network or ask questions as well as a background functioning allowing our team to manually connect mentors and mentees, was a time-consuming but rewarding process. By connecting our matches on our networking platform, they were not only able to use the chat and call function for their sessions, but everyone was able to connect with other people on this year's programme too, thereby providing the opportunity to widen personal networks and meet new people.
The structure of the programme remained the same as last year - a minimum of 3 contact points over the course of the month to balance commitment with impact.
Designing the application forms was done with the careful consideration of what information would be needed to best match two people, whether they studied the same or had similar professional aspirations. A comprehensive picture of both mentees and mentors aspirations for this programme was thereby able to be made.
The questions posed to mentees were:
- Subject & Matriculation
- What do you hope to gain from Mentoring Month?
- Do you have any work experience
- What sector/industry might you be interested in?
- DO you have any other preference regarding a mentor?
Our mentors were asked to detail:
- Subject & Matriculation
- Professional Strength & Key Skills
- Ideal Mentee
- Professional History
- Professional Experience
- Additional information
Advertisement & Opening Applications
Wanting to engage a larger audience for this year's programme, our call for applications went out wider and earlier to both mentors and mentees.
In January, we started advertising the upcoming programme to alumni our monthly Alumni Newsletter, from where we received quite a few expressions of interest. In mid-January, a comprehensive email detailing what Mentoring Month is, what the programme entails, how it contributes to the professional development of students, and how alumni may get involved was communicated to our entire alumni community.
A similar process was done for the students. In addition to the email sent by the Alumni Office, we liaised with the Tutorial Office to spread the news of this exciting opportunity to all students. To give students a more concrete presentation of the programme, we hosted an Introductory Event where a mentoring pair from last year's programme, Victoria Dowd (alumna) and Olivia Bouton (student), spoke about their experience to the students and provided some real life insights into the process and benefits of this programme.
In late January applications for mentors were opened (a few days prior to the students') so that we could gage how many matches we might be able to make, to get an idea of the subjects studied, and to understand the range of professional expertise on this year's programme. We were delighted to have received over 85 mentor applications.
Our students were invited to sign up after the Introductory Event and we were thrilled to have received 75 mentee applications, many of which came from students having attended the event.
Hand Matching
From early to mid-February, our team took a generous amount of time to carefully consider each and every application.
Since we had more students than alumni apply, we were able to be quite strict when it came to making sure that the student was receiving the best match possible. In order of priority, our matching strategy was based around the following characteristics:
- Subject
- Mentee's aims
- Mentee's professional aspirations
- Mentor's Professional Experience
- Mentor's Professional Skills and Strengths
Since this programme is primarily intended to provide students with the opportunity to connect with an experienced alum and receive personalised professional mentoring, we focused on finding the best match for each students. On some occasions, this meant personally reaching out to alumni who had not signed up via our form but who possessed the personal and professional expertise our students were looking for. As such, we were unable to pair every mentor who had applied, but we are endlessly grateful to their show of generosity and willingness to support and shape the next generation of Trinity graduates.
Whilst our aim was to double last year's matches, we are ecstatic to have overshot our aim by almost 100%, with 75 successful matches.
Having paired our 75 matches, we uploaded their application data onto our aluminate platform Trinity Connect, to create bespoke mentor and mentee profiles, and placed the participants into their relevant groups (general programme group & mentor/mentee group), ready for the release of the matches.
Announcing Matches
At the end of February, we released our matches through Trinity Connect.
Specifically designed for mentoring programmes, this platform possesses the unique function to connect two people and enable communication via the chat or call function. Once connected, mentors and mentees are then able to view each others' profiles and understand their common interests and professional aspirations.
Attached to an introductory email, detailing the structure of the programme and a reminder of the launch event, we sent out personalised email detailing participants' matches and encouraging them to connect via the platform prior to the launch call.
Launch of Mentoring Month 2024
On 29 February, we hosted an online launch event for all participants to provide some additional information and to allow matches to meet ahead of the next month. The first third of the call consisted of a general information session, after which we split participants into mentor and mentee groups to give a more targeted mini-masterclass on mentoring and the month ahead.
Some of our alumni, including Emmanuel Soquar and Ravi Agarwal, generously led the masterclasses and gave some very valuable insights into what mentoring actually means and entails for both the mentors and mentees.
In their group, the mentees were prompted to write down three specific goals they were hoping to achieve on the programme. This was a strategic task to prepare them for their first session with their mentors and have a potential structure that could guide their three sessions.
The mentors were given the opportunity to engage in a lively Q&A about Mentoring Month, and the art of being a good mentor more generally.
On 1 March, Mentoring Month 2024 officially launched.
Mid-Month Check In
Halfway through the programme, we made sure to signal the ongoing support available from our team by holding a student drop-in session in College and reaching out to mentors via email to check-in.
In response to our check-in communication, a few people signalled having had difficulties connecting with their match. We were able to get in touch with the relevant people and streamline their contact.
Closing the Programme
At the end of March the programme officially closed.
Feedback & Thank You
To gain a better understanding of the participants' experience on this year's programme, we created feedback forms and were pleased to have many alumni and students share their views. The main question guiding the design of the form was as follows: "What is it that we want to learn about the programme, its impact and future improvements?"
A more detailed report can be found in the 'Results' section.
With the intention of encouraging a closer relationships and fostering durable networks, we provided the students with thank you cards to write a message to their mentors thanking them for their support.
A final communication thanking every participant for their involvement in and engagement with the programme officially closed Mentoring Month 2024.
The End
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