RSA US Mentorship Program

Overview

“This was the biggest highlight of my experience as a Fellow of the RSA so far. The caliber of humans in our network is mind-blowing. And it’s just a microcosm of the RSA. Incredible!”

This match-making program for U.S. and Canadian Fellows connects RSA Fellows who have personal or professional needs and goals around which they would like additional support or guidance (mentees) and RSA Fellows who would like to offer resources, connections, and experience to benefit other Fellows (mentors).

Fellows get matched together based on mutual fit, and work together for a minimum of seven hours over the course of three months. During the first meeting, each mentor and mentee pair structures their time together using the program’s guidelines, and works to meet the needs or goals of the mentee.

Unique program features:

• It is self-structured. The mentorship experience is set up by the pair, based on the needs of the mentee, the goals for their work together, and what the mentor can offer.
  

• It accommodates a range of relationships. Mentorship can take many forms depending on the pair; it could be traditional mentor-mentee, peer exchange/learning, coaching, etc.
  

• It starts with accountability & responsibility. Each pair begins working together by spending some time thinking through agreements, responsibility, and how to be accountable to each other.

Program frequency

There are two mentorship program cohorts each year: one in the spring, and one in the fall. To participate as a mentee for the spring or fall cohort, you will need to sign up by the following dates:

Spring 2021 cohort: February 20th, 2021

Fall 2021 cohort: August 20th, 2021

For Mentees

Sign up to be a mentee and access the relevant tools and instructions.

For Mentors

List yourself as a mentor and access supportive mentorship resources.

"What this mentorship program has given me is the opportunity to work outside of the population I normally work with, and to integrate the knowledge of my mentors into my project. One mentor has been helping me with the big picture, and the other has been helping me with the  minute-by-minute, week-by-week work; a balance of the zoomed-out and zoomed-in perspective. The result has been tremendous for my project. It’s been a great success."

Mentee, Cohort 4

"Being a mentor helped me to get to know the RSA network better, and I plan to keep up the friendship that has been started between my mentee and I. I found it valuable to have a person I could offer my gifts to, and I also learned a lot from the person that I mentored. We spent our last call together talking about how grateful we were for each other!"

Mentor, Cohort 4

“Through this program, I was able to meet, interact with, and learn from some people that I otherwise never would have met -- I can't imagine it going any other way. I'm part of a small industry and it can feel very isolated, so getting to broaden my horizons was extremely valuable.”

Mentee, Cohort 4