StartScience

Mentoring Program for Female Students

With StartScience, female Bachelor and Master students in all disciplines have their own mentoring program at the University of Stuttgart.  Our aim is to motivate female students to consider a career in science and to provide effective tools for career orientation and  individual perspective development. StartScience offers dual mentoring formats designed to meet the varying needs of the participants.

One-to-One Mentoring: The student benefits from mentoring by a female doctoral candidate over a 12-month period.
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring: As a complement to one-to-one mentoring, the students support each other in the ErfolgsTeam (SuccessTeam) framework.

Running in parallel with the entire mentoring process there is a supporting program consisting of brainstorming sessions, workshops, and networking events.

“Taking part in StartScience offers you a unique chance to build a bridge between the theory between learned during the stuides and the subsequent career as a female scientiest, ans in that way, prepare yourself optimally for a scientific career.”

Prof. Wolfram Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart

We would like to point out that our Mentoring Program is a German-language program: all further education events and program modules are conducted in German.

StartScience Building Blocks

Your tandem relationship lasts 12 months. The focus of your regular, personal meetings is on earning a doctorate and planning a scientific career.

The ErfolgsTeam (SuccessTeam) concept is a field-proven form of peer mentoring. Within 10 months, the mentees meet regularly in their ErfolgsTeams to reflect on goal attainment, problem solving, peer counseling, motivation, and support.

We offer relevant and appropriate training to introduce you to the role as mentor and mentee. The mentees receive briefings on the ErfolgsTeam method and workshops for reflection and career-relevant development. In addition female mentors are provided with a workshop on reflecting an developing their leadership skills.

You will make many interesting contacts, which you can later use specifically for yuzr professional advancement. At our networking events, you have the opportunity tp practice your networking skills at an early stage.

As part of our program, we offer our participants personalized impulse lectures by female university professors on their career paths, motivation, and their prpfessional lives. Afterwards, you have the chance to pose your individual, career-related questions to the professors and to get advice from them. 

Being a Mentee

As a one-year StartScience menteer you will get:

  • Unique insights into the daily lives of female scientists.
  • Experience in how to better evaluate yourself and your abilities
  • The chance to recognize and assess your potential.
  • Free further education  in the area of important key qualifications that ordinarily may be neglected during your studies
  • The chance to meet many interesting and committed people and to build up a first job-relevant network piece by piece.
  • Wider life experience through a challenging role and the responsibilities associated with it.

Incidentally, your commitment as a mentee at StartScience can be rewarded with 3 credits per semester (interdisciplinary key qualifications)!!

  • Active and constructive participation in shaping the mentoring relationship
  • Flesh out your career goals
  • Systematic pursuit of career perspectives and goals that you have worked out with your mentor.

Applications as a mentee for the next round of StartScience are again open from May, 2024.

Participating as Female Mentor

As a StartScience mentor you will gain by

  • Reflecting on your own career path
  • Strengthening your own mentoring and mediation skills
  • Receiving new stimuli and contacts relating to your own work
  • Networking with female PhD candidates from various areas of the University of Stuttgart
  • Expanding life experience through a challenging role and the tasks it entails
  • Active and responsible co-creation of the mentoring relationship
  • Advising and supporting the mentee with career planning and pursuing her career goals.
  • Passing on experience and mediating contacts to academic and professional networks.

Applications to become a mentor for the next round of StartScience are again open from May, 2024.

 

Stelle Meyer, uniqUS – Unit for Inclusive University Culture

Azenbergstraße 12, 70174 Stuttgart

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