Hi everyone, I was reading through some of the articles on Diversity Blogs and I found one titled "To My Younger Self 2022: A Mentoring Initiative to Bridge the Gap Between Who You Are and Who You Want to Be" written by Shikha Safaya from the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech. (https://connect.informs.org/diversity/diversity-blog/mentoring-initative)
The blog article discusses the need for a program called "To My Younger Self (TMYS)" initiated by INFORMS DEI Ambassadors and Women in ORMS to address gender bias in academia, particularly for women in STEM fields.The program aims to help women doctoral students form a community of peers, build a network of mentors, develop professional and self-care skills, and feel confident in their abilities to succeed in their profession. The program is structured to address the questions that doctoral students face, such as how to prepare for the job market, be an effective teacher, and build a network of collaborators.
The author, Shikha Safaya, shares her personal experience as a first-time international applicant and participant in the program's cohort. It introduced her to several mentors that shaped her views on networking and provided her with strategies to form long term professional relationships.
This article really spoke to me because not only am I a woman pursuing a career in STEM, but like Safaya at the time, I'm a young professional eager to build my network. I've been told about the profound importance of networking by many people successful in their careers and through my personal experiences, I've found this to be true. Many pivotal opportunities have been presented to me solely due to the people I knew and the relationship I had with them.
However, something from Safaya's article that differed from my experiences is the mentoring and individualized coaching aspect of TMYS. I've never had the opportunity to be mentored by someone in my career and I'm quite curious to know the benefits. I've heard that it helps to have someone to look up to that can offer more personalized guidance to you for your career, but it can be difficult to find such mentors outside of formal programs like the TMYS.
My questions to those reading this is this - have you had the opportunity to be mentored by someone in your career and if so, how did you connect with them and was it beneficial? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this to encourage further conversation around networking and its impact on underrepresented communities.
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Avantika Goyal
UC Davis MSBA
San Ramon CA
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