The Women at Rensselaer Mentor Program was initiated to provide a community for female undergraduates who are a minority population at Rensselaer. Group peer mentoring facilitates a seamless transition for first year female undergraduates, encourages habits leading to successful academic performance, supports making sound choices to maintain health and wellness, and provides tips for balancing academics and extracurricular interests. The program offers monthly social and professional development events for female undergraduates to come together as a community. These events allow for networking among the students and with practicing professionals in STEM fields and include engaging interactive workshops that teach 21st century competencies. The workshops are open to all Rensselaer students.

Vision: Educating and inspiring the next generation of Rensselaer women to achieve academic and professional excellence by developing and employing a growth mindset and emotionally intelligent leadership skills.

Mission:  Building mentoring partnerships and a community of like-minded students that support first year women in achieving their academic and professional goals by developing the knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes of high-performing, compassionate leaders.

Goals:  

  1. To assist first-year women in transitioning seamlessly to their new campus environment by becoming acquainted with the campus culture, cultivating relationships with people who support their goals, and by learning to develop habits and make healthy choices that support their goals
  2. To assist first-year mentees and their mentors develop awareness of their abilities, emotions, and perceptions through continual, ongoing self-reflection
  3. To share resources and strategies for obtaining “A” grades and developing relationships with faculty and peers that cultivate academic excellence
  4. To develop self-advocacy, resilience, and healthy self-esteem
  5. To identify areas of strength and those that need improvement and develop a plan for addressing the latter
  6. To explore potential career goals by identifying core values and creating a personal mission statement
  7. To recognize attitudes and behaviors associated with Impostor Syndrome and Implicit Bias and how to address these in ourselves and/or others