Federica De Stefano first became involved as a junior faculty member of the Strategic Human Capital IG. Her involvement deepened through her experiences at the SMS Annual Conference. Through word-of-mouth, she became a volunteer leader, now serving as the Associate Program Chair.
As an Assistant Professor, in her early years of teaching, she joined the Strategic Human Capital Junior Mentoring Program as a mentee before transitioning to a leadership role, Engagement Officer, and supporting Ulya Tsolmon, who founded the program.
The program has been running for over 5 years and on average has 20 mentor/mentee pairs each year. After a Virtual Kick-Off meeting, mentoring pairs convene virtually on a quarterly basis. The program offers a structured goal-setting outline and conversation starters.
Federica mentions,
“Participants love having the chance to meet the senior faculty that would otherwise be perceived as hard to approach. And at the same time, I think everyone really enjoys to opportunity to connect with other mentees.”
The value goes beyond the mentee— to senior scholars:
“I think what they enjoy about the program is the opportunity to connect with junior colleagues in a dedicated virtual space. They also enjoy the opportunity to contribute to our IG, to our community, and to kind of foster that sense of collegiality, which our IG really has.”
Given the geographic disbursement of participants, the SHC Junior Scholar Mentoring Program offers a way for IG members to connect beyond the Annual Conference.
The structure of the program is informed by Strategic Human Capital IG members’ expertise in human capital and development and coaching and mentoring.
“Many of us have found benefits in the program in terms of accomplishing our research goals, in terms of advancing our papers or our research, as well as going through the tenure process, career transitions, or like major career like milestones or decisions. It’s not just about the research and the publication, but it’s also a lot of value that is created in terms of career development for the mentees. I think that’s really wonderful because you can really share meaningful dimensions of your life with other people and get advice both from the mentors and the other mentees.”
From her own experience, Frederica shares:
“…That feeling of belonging, of being surrounded by people who were supportive of my work, who were giving me feedback, who were helping me grow on all dimensions of my scholarly identity. I think it has helped me tremendously at different stages and it still helps me a lot.”
To anyone looking to engage in the Strategic Human Capital Interest Group:
“I think the mentoring program is really the indicator of the culture of the group. We also have a mentoring program for doctoral students. We really have a certain vocation towards lifting each other up and lifting young scholars up.
This culture of generosity and mutual support is something that is very ingrained in the IG and makes it a very happy and welcoming place.”
