In the era in which we use Google maps to reach any destination, shouldn't we need something to show us the right direction in the Journey of Life ? That's called the powerful tool of mentoring !!
When I came across MentorTogether.org, I felt it was a great initiative and as I have been benefited by all my mentors who provided me timely guidance, decided to be a part of it. I have always felt complete and satisfied about mentoring people at work too, hence there was no looking back.
The enrollment was through a simple email registration and then there was a day long workshop, where we were introduced to the program and got to know the organization in depth. The ask was clear - for an effective mentoring program, we had to commit to spend 6-8 hrs per month for 8 months.
The mission of the MentorTogether program, is to provide underprivileged youth with enduring and empowering one-on-one relationships with mentors, to help them achieve their goals & dreams. The work based mentoring program has several modules, the preliminary modules are carefully designed to focus on relationship building between mentor & mentee. The subsequent modules are youth-oriented, and focus on the soft skills required by them to be successful in their career.
The team, at MentorTogether, matches the mentor/mentee after doing a thorough study of the mentee’s requirements/background and mentors’ abilities. In the mentor-mentee meeting, I met Pragati - A small town girl, with great dreams of making it big in her career.
In our initial few meetings, we focused on knowing each other and building trust. In these meetings, I found that Pragati’s immediate challenge was to clear the aptitude tests in her ongoing campus recruitment processes. So we took a deviation from the pre-defined course and did some aptitude exercises together. This included online tests, solving puzzles and math problems. Gradually I could see Pragati getting more confident about the tests. Our efforts did not go futile, as in the next few campus events, she was able to clear the aptitude tests.
In the subsequent meetings, we worked on body language, communication skills, negotiation and presentation skills. We did role play, watched relevant videos , debated, discussed and played some games to sharpen the skills.
The major challenge for us was “time”. Both of us were committed and flexible enough to meet anywhere depending on the time constraints. We met in my office / house /her hostel / few Sundays we met in Jayanagar Park too !
Pragathi has now graduated and has been successful in finding a job of her choice, I am extremely happy for her and am thankful to the MentorTogether team to have let me help her out in her journey. Our journey in the context of the program is over, but our friendship has just begun !!
Now, I am all excited to be another Google map in the next MentorTogether Program :)
If you want to be a mentor please visit : http://www.mentortogether.org/pc/apply/mentor/
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