SPSU has joined MentorNet, a 12-year-old nonprofit e-mentoring service that helps students in engineering and science achieve their career goals by matching them one-on-one with mentors in academia and industry. The organization focuses on women and under-represented minorities to foster diversity in science and engineering but is open to matching anyone on its 115 partner campuses with a mentor.

Through MentorNet, students and early-career faculty members can sign up to be matched with a faculty mentor or an industry professional somewhere in the country, and faculty can volunteer to mentor a student from another member institution. Mentors and protégés then communicate for eight months via email.

SPSU president Lisa A. Rossbacher is currently serving as mentor of a graduate student at the College of William and Mary. She has also served as a mentor in the past to female graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and North Carolina State University.

According to MentorNet, protégés in the program consistently report increased confidence in their abilities, an increased desire to pursue a career in their field and a high degree of satisfaction with their MentorNet experience. Mentors consistently report an increased level of commitment to their fields and their institutions as a result, along with professional development and the personal satisfaction of knowing that they have helped someone achieve their goals.

Amanda Brown-Conway, assistant director of Student Recruitment, is SPSU’s MentorNet liaison. She can be reached at ext. 5549 or abrownco@spsu.edu. SPSU students and faculty are encouraged to check out www.mentornet.net, where they can sign up to be matched with a mentor.