In September 2022, iCHORDS launched its first cohort of the mentorship program. We received over 200 applicants for the program and created 7 mentee/mentor pairs based on experience and NTD interests. The program ran for 4 months, and the pairs were encouraged to meet a total of 4 times to work on a specific task, review career goals, or to discuss feedback on previous or current NTD work.
The program concluded in December, and we are pleased with the positive feedback we have received from both mentees and mentors. It sounds like both mentors and mentees gained valuable experience from the process and were able to share and learn from each other. For example, one mentee shared:
“For me it was the opportunity to draw from her extensive experience, and the clear direction it gave me about what I would like to focus my career on going forward”
We want to thank all our mentors and mentees for their commitment to the program and helping to make it a success. As well, we would like to thank our mentorship program committee for providing their valuable insight and guidance throughout this process: Maggie Baker, Beth Long, Alison Krentel, Deborah McFarland, Evelyn Acquah, Margaret Gyapong, Hammed Mogaji, and Charles Mackenzie. We believe this is a valuable opportunity to help connect NTD professionals, so that we can all learn from each other. For example, one mentor shared:
“I was delighted to hear ideas from someone with a different perspective and experience. That is the thing I continue to appreciate about iCHORDS; that you get to hear from people who might not be invited to the “big meetings” but are still doing really interesting things.”
Based on the success and positive feedback from the first round, we plan to offer a second mentorship program this Spring. However, a few elements will be different. We received feedback from both the mentors and mentees that the program should be longer. For this second cohort we will run the program for 6 months. We hope this will give the pairs a greater opportunity to develop meaningful goals and discussion, and offer flexibility in scheduling meeting times. We also hope to offer more networking opportunities; particularly for the mentees so that they can form connections with other NTD professionals from around the world.
We are looking forward to our second round of the mentorship program. We will be putting a call out for applications in February-early March 2023. Make sure you are following us on Twitter (@iCHORDS_CoP) and checking your emails. If you want to learn more about the program you can follow the link, or you can email us at info.ichords@gmail.com
