Mentoring Programs

Professional mentors join their collegiate mentees for dinner at Beau Jo's in Old Town, Fort Collins

Thanks to Kelly Houghten and Kelly Gazarik, two of our fabulous professional mentors, for hosting our Longmont mentoring social potluck and leading the plant hanger craft!

Program Description:
SWE is continuing the CSU SWE Professional and Peer Mentoring Programs for the 2019-2020 academic year! Since the professional program's foundation in Fall 2015, it has connected engineering students with professional women engineers in the northern CO area, and currently has more than 50 members! Our peer program was founded in Spring 2019, and has since grown to 30 under and upperclassmen.

Professional Mentoring Program:
The goal of this program is to connect CSU SWE members with professional women in industry by pairing students and mentors in a 1:1 ratio. Through this opportunity, students can form meaningful relationships with their mentors to get advice and learn about real-world projects, technologies within their field, work-life balance, networking, and more. We have mentors from various disciplines and companies, including Medtronic, Woodward, HP, and NREL. Through these amazing mentors, students in the program have had the unique opportunities to:

See first-hand their mentor's engineering projects
Tour their mentor's company and network within the company
Collaborate with their mentors to develop strategies for internships and interviews
Delve into high-level technical engineering topics such as new products and technologies

Mentoring pairs spend at least 1 hour per month to meet and work on the student’s goals. In
addition, various networking socials are hosted throughout the year to provide opportunities to
meet other members of the program. For many mentors and mentees, their relationships have
endured past the graduation of the students.

Peer Mentoring Program:
The goal of peer mentoring is to connect younger and older engineering students through a mentoring relationship in which both mentor and mentee can develop their leadership styles, interpersonal skills, and personal goals. This mentoring program allows students to understand and refine their objectives and expectations during their time at CSU, and gain valuable insight on classes and coursework, professional development, and other goals they might have for their future years at CSU. Through the program, students are able to:

Shadow upper-division classes and labs
Have candid conversations about tackling engineering coursework and navigating where they belong in engineering
Form friendships with one another

Mentoring pairs spend at least 1-2 hours every three weeks to work on their goals. Each student
meets with the mentoring program coordinator to find the perfect mentoring partner, and works with the coordinator to develop their mentoring relationship style. Many of the underclassmen
join the Professional Mentoring Program when they become upperclassmen.

Interested in Participating in the Spring 2020 Peer Mentoring Program?

Sign up here to be a mentor, or here to be mentee, by Friday, January 31st.
OR contact us at csuswementoring@gmail.com!

The Professional Mentoring Program sign up for the 2019-2020 academic year is closed.
Mentors and mentees in the peer program will be paired and introduced in early February.
**Must be a dues-paying SWE member to participate in both programs.

Any other questions?

Please don't hesitate to email:

Annie Elefante
Mentoring Program Coordinator
csuswementoring@gmail.com

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