Mentorship Opportunities

• shares an interest in sustaining the SAME values and goals related to STEM
• requires a commitment to personal interaction1
• desires to inspire and engage
• utilizes the resources and support in the growth environment provided
• provides feedback regarding the effectiveness of the educational opportunity
• looks for opportunities to expand SAME mentoring efforts
• likes to have fun!

• Provides opportunity to Give back
• Increases social circles and contacts within a professional network
• Reciprocal growth potential: increased communication and leadership skills
• Develop or maintain connections to universities within your local community.
• Increases your awareness of benefits of SAME
• Professional skill continuity and job security for mentor’s industry

• Increased opportunity for development of Next Generation
• Support of US world class military, government, civilian, and industry leaders for the Society and our Nation.
• Recognition of individuality: strengths, roles and avenues to success.
• Support team concepts including roles, responsibilities, accountability, and goals.
• Stronger leadership skills through training, assignments and mentoring roles.
• Foster STEM leadership for the Nation!

• Mentors don’t make the Mentee; they make the mentee better!
• Believe in yourself & your own capabilities!
• Be prepared:
  • Know your role
  • Listen
  • Set your boundaries; be clear and precise
  • Interact and share
  • Invest time into knowing your mentee: the more you know the more you can help
  • Maintain and respect privacy, honesty and integrity
  • Honor your commitments and confidences
  • Provide and obtain feedback
• Help them:
  • Identify learning opportunities with SAME
  • Network
  • Understand what feedback looks like

• How to Start a Mentoring Program, Chronus (also see YouTube link)
• How to Build a Mentoring Program, US Patent and Trademark Office
• Elements of Effective Mentoring, MENTOR National Mentoring Partnership, 2015
• The Mentoring Manual, Institute for Broadening Participation (Funded by the National Science Foundation), 2012
• Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend, National Academies of Science, 1997
• Federal Workplace Mentoring Primer, US Office of Personnel Management, 2017
• Best Practices: Mentoring, US Office of Personnel Management, 2008.
• Women in the Academy: Female Leadership in STEM Education and the Evolution of a Mentoring Web, Forum on Public Policy, 2010
• Career Benefits Associated with Mentoring for Proteges, Journal of Applied Psychology, 2004
• Women in STEM Education Institute Mentor Handbook, Lone Star College-North Harris.
• Mapping a Mentoring Roadmap, Dr. Beronda Montgomery

In order to better promote mentoring across the Society, we need to know what Posts, firms, agencies, and members are doing to mentor other SAME members.

How can Posts, firms, agencies, and members benefit from your best practices and lessons learned?

Please use this form to submit your information.

Developed with support from the SAME Foundation, the LDP identifies and cultivates talent from within the SAME membership to address the nation’s grand challenges. Participants explore individual strengths and team dynamics. The program supports the development of the next generation of world class military, government, civilian, and industry leaders for the Society and our Nation. LDP is a yearlong commitment, running from Joint Engineer Training Conference (JETC) to the following JETC.

Serve as a mentor to help shepherd the professional development of these promising professionals throughout the program year. In this role, you will provide individual professional guidance and support to advance their leadership skills. Mentors are typically recruited in April of each year.

The success of the SAME camps program depends on the experience and talents contributed by the staff, cadets, college students, and other volunteers that come from our many SAME Posts and partner organizations. They fill critical mentor and staff roles. The Camps COI is always looking for volunteers to serve as mentors, squad leaders, logistical support, and other staff positions that ensures the camps continued success. Mentor and staff recruitment activities are in high gear January – June.

Building on their historic commitment to mentoring, the Academy of Fellows (AOF) is accepting the challenge, asking our members to actively join the rank of “Mentor” by increasing their engagement in SAME mentoring activities. This is reflected in the AOF Charge:

I charge you to be a mentor. A Fellow fully understands the importance of growing future professionals and leaders and continually seeks opportunities to do so. A Fellow actively participates in SAME education, training and professional development programs, sharing experience, insight, expertise and best practices and doing so with enthusiasm. May the laurel branch with berries on your medallion remind you to remain a mentor throughout your professional career.

Fellows nurture student members by mentoring at SAME camps and post K-12 outreach events, cultivate emerging leaders by mentoring for the Leader Development Program, and ensure SAME young professionals advance in their career pursuits by co-hosting mentoring events and trainings with the Young Professionals COI at SAME national events. To learn more about the AOF’s mentoring efforts, visit the AOF webpage.

Does your Post conduct a mentoring program? If so, the LD COI would like to make sure your program is represented as part of the LD COI mentoring strategy. If your Post has a Mentoring POC, make sure they sign on to be part of the LD COI so they can add to the body of knowledge of the community.

If your company is an SAME sustaining member and runs an internship, mentoring, or leader development program, please let us know so we can include you in our inventory. If they don’t, is there interest to start one? To let us know about your program, or to find out what it takes to set up mentoring program, contact Thad Tobaben at William.tobaben@kiewit.com, Sustaining Member POC on the Mentoring Advisory Group.

Mentoring increases the effectiveness of the U.S. armed forces, ensures talent is retained and recruited, and increases diversity and learning. Each service branch invests in its own mentoring strategy. For more information about mentoring opportunities and resources, contact Jeannine Finton.