“As you climb, also lift. Always reach down and lift others so that they can gain, too.”
-- Mary McLeod Bethune, former President, Bethune-Cookman College.

A second set of breakout sessions at the National Women’s Leadership Summit focused on the topic of Mentorship. In the past three years, the Women’s Bureau has designed and implemented several mentoring programs, including:

• GEM-SET (Girls’ Electronic Mentoring in Science, Engineering, and Technology; www.gem-set.org)
• GEM-Nursing (Group E-Mentoring in Nursing; www.gem-nursing.org)
• Wi$e Up (a financial education project for Generation X women; www.wiseupwomen.org), and
• Flex-Options (a mentoring program for business owners on how to develop flexible workplace policies; www.we-inc.org).

At the Summit, the Women’s Bureau shared some of the lessons learned from these programs. For example, mentoring is a way to connect people with similar interests and promote learning. The Mentorship breakout sessions gave the leaders of several organizations the opportunity to talk about their experiences with mentoring programs. These leaders were:

• Michelle Chambers
  Executive Director, Tennessee Economic Council on Women, Nashville, TN

• Dr. Esther Pearson
  Founder, Mary McLeod Bethune Institute & Pearson Group, Groton, MA

• Dr. Lois Zachary
  President, Leadership Development Services, LLC, Phoenix, AZ

• Nancy Chen
  Regional Administrator, Region V, USDOL, Women’s Bureau

• Anne T. Onstott
  RN, CNOR, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO

The panelists offered suggestions on how to establish a mentoring program. The first step is to determine clear goals for the program: for example, to provide role models; to identify and overcome challenges; to offer career guidance; to teach leadership and management skills; and to share visions, opportunities, and expertise. The next step is to determine which types of mentoring best achieve those goals: peer-to-peer, professional to student, face-to-face, online, etc.

A well-designed mentoring program also includes infrastructure – strategies to recruit and retain mentors and mentees and opportunities for interaction between the participants. Communication can occur via the Internet or in-person. It is also key to have the support of supervisors in an organization.

If you would like to find or to be a mentor, you can contact a relevant professional organization, employer, government agency, nonprofit, or college or university to find out about available opportunities.

The Women’s Bureau is proud to support working women as they mentor others.

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Statements of or attributions to private sector speakers or participants may not necessarily reflect Department views.

For More Information About WB, Contact:
U.S. Department of Labor
Women's Bureau
200 Constitution Avenue, NW - Room S-3002
Washington, DC 20210
Telephone 1-800-827-5335 or (202) 693-6710
Fax (202) 693-6725