The Institute has formulated a structured mentoring program to ensure that necessary academic, personal, career, and psycho-social counseling is regularly available to the students. Each faculty is a mentor to about 10-15 students. Four hours per week are allocated in the academic timetable for these mentoring sessions. Additional informal mentoring also takes place as and when required. Mentors maintain records of each mentee in a Mentoring Booklet prepared by the Institute. At the end of the course, each mentee is handed over a brief Profile/Career Graph of themselves which is prepared by the respective mentors.
Goal:
The Institute believes that personal and professional development go hand in hand. The main goal of mentoring is to provide support to students in times of discouragement as well as success and to be mindful of signs of emotional and physical distress. The specific objectives of mentoring are:
The Context:
It has been found through observation and research that todays youth is faced with numerous personal, professional, and psycho-social issues. These include peer pressure, family pressure, relationship issues, feeling of being disadvantaged due to economic or social family background, pressure to succeed, societal demands etc. All of these issues can create fear, stress, and anxiety among the students which in turn leads to poor academic performance. The Institute wanted to provide the students with a platform to discuss all kinds of issues with someone without the fear of being judged or being singled out. The mentoring practice was started in the Institute to facilitate such discussion which in turn creates conducive climate for personal and professional growth and career planning of students.
The Practice:
The Institute assigns 10-15 students from each batch to each faculty member as mentees. Each faculty member (mentor) provides academic, personal, and psycho-social support to students assigned to them (mentees). The mentors are required to establish contact with their mentees as soon as the academic year starts. Specific time slots of one hour per batch per week are allocated in the academic time table for mentoring sessions. During mentoring sessions mentors counsel and guide their mentees on various personal, professional, and psycho-social issues as the need may be. Informal mentoring is also encouraged at other times to ensure that students always feel supported and any signs of distress are addressed as early as possible.
The Institute has designed and developed a mentoring booklet which serves as a mechanism for record keeping. One mentoring booklet per student is maintained by the mentor. The basic profile of the mentee and his/her performance during the two years of study at the Institute is recorded in the mentoring booklet. The mentor also records the various discussions had with the mentee. In some cases, formal records are avoided to maintain confidentiality. Each mentor also monitors the performance of their mentees and discusses their progress and provides suggestions for improvement as and when required.
At the end of the two years of study, mentors prepare a brief profile/career graph of each mentee which describes their performance throughout the course and highlights the ways in which they have improved since joining the Institute. The profiles/career graphs are handed over to students along with comments by the Director.
Evidence of Success:
The activity has proven to be beneficial for improving academic/professional excellence of the students along with giving them guidance and support from time to time in their personal matters. Several students that may have been at risk of drop out due to academic, personal, economic, and psycho-social issues have been successfully coached and guided towards improvement in academics as well as their general outlook. Significant improvement in the academic performance of mentees has been observed.