As you know, the Early Career Fellowship is designed to help us empower a new generation of Internet champions. While we've developed a comprehensive (and exciting!) academic program with partners like the Oxford Internet Institute and Prof Laura De Nardis (among many, many others) to help Fellows develop their knowledge base, we strongly believe we also need to ensure these future leaders develop practical skills that they can apply in social contexts to build, promote and defend the Internet. This is why each Fellow will be developing a project of their choice throughout the program.
While Fellows are learning from dedicated modules on project management to develop their unique projects, we also want them to have the benefit of learning from current Internet thinkers and doers. People like you. That's why we would like to match each of the 15 Early Career Fellows with a dedicated Mentor who can help them develop their project and guide their career.
Because our fellows' needs are very important to us, we asked them what they need and want from a mentorship. We're using their feedback to develop support that meets their expressed needs. For instance, while
subject matter expertise in a Mentor is important to most of the Fellows, they also emphasized the importance of
strong regional network that Mentors might be able to introduce their Fellow-Mentees to. Most of the Fellows really want Mentors who can
challenge their ideas and help them
develop their thinking, while also being a
good sounding board. As one Fellow explained, "I'll appreciate having a mentor who provides active and actionable feedback; I'd like to do prep work to make the most use of our time together and appreciate having concrete outcomes from a mentoring conversation."
Given what the Fellows told us about their needs, we think the
ideal Mentors will be individuals who have already
developed strong careers and built up extensive experience in the field. Individuals who want to give back to the community, and support the broader Internet by helping new talent thrive.
If you sign up to be a Mentor, you will join a Mentorship Pool:
- We will match each of the Fellows with a Mentor we believe most suitable for their needs (in terms of practical or regional experience), and ideally one who speaks the same first language. The matching will be 1:1 (mentors would be matched with at most one Fellow)
- If we are unable to match you with a Fellow on this round, we will match you with a Fellow for one of our next cohorts if still interested.
- Once we are able to match you with a Fellow, we will ask of you to meet (virtually) with that Fellow approximately once every two weeks over a four-month period as part of the Early Career Fellowship.
- Your relationship with the Fellow is for you to manage. You can find a time that works best for you to meet, and should you want to meet with the Fellow more frequently than once a fortnight, you are of course free to do so.
Please let us know by completing this short form if you want to join the Mentorship Pool (If you have already completed this form, you are part of the "pool" and don't need to complete it again).
As the Internet Society continues to work on building, promoting, and defending an Internet that is for everyone, everywhere, we are grateful and encouraged to know that we have a community of selfless champions and supporters like you. And we hope you'll soon join this empowerment program as a Mentor.
Kind regards,
The Fellowships Team
