Mentorship program for women launching in northwest Indiana
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The Northwest Indiana Influential Women Association is launching a new mentoring program designed to foster personal and professional development for women leaders in the region.
The six-month program, set to begin next month, will match participants with a mentor based on professional and industry alignment, goals, and communication preferences, the organization said.
Executive Director Andrea Pearman, who is also co-chair of the program, says the association wanted to create a peer-to-peer mentoring program because one didn’t exist in the region, and having a shorter program was key.
“We’ve been hearing this for over three years, especially from both mentors and mentees,” Pearman said. “It’s a program that they really wanted. We wanted to create one that would be specifically that would pair well with our mentors and mentees. So it took us about a year and a half to come up with the structure that would work successfully for both a mentor mentee, and one of the key components was that we did not want a long, extended mentor program.”
The program is open to mentors and mentees in all industries in northwest Indiana. The organization says mentees will build leadership skills through coaching, support and actionable feedback.
As part of the program, participants will schedule four, one-hour in-person or virtual sessions with their mentors to discuss their goals and other topics. The association will also provide scheduled programming and professional development sessions, including the Professional Women’s Conference in November.
“As a mentee-driven initiative, this program is designed to empower women, not simply to control the direction of someone else’s path,” program co-chair Aida Abuelizam said in written remarks. “Mentees can expect to be in the driver’s seat, steering their way to improving confidence, reaching new goals and building strategies for themselves. All the while, the mentors will be there to help guide them and encourage that self-discovery.”
Pearman says the first cohort will be comprised of 12 to 15 women, and they’ve received a lot of applications for the program thus far. She said the variety of women who have applied has been surprising.
“The preconceived notion that a mentee would be, let’s say, late 20s, early 30s, right?” she said. “We’re having people that want to be a mentee that have 20 years experience; they want to still continue to grow and learn new skills.”
Applications for the first mentorship session will close on Sunday. Participation for mentors is free and the cost for mentees is $75. You can find more information by clicking here.
The organization will host a kickoff celebration in July.
While the association is looking to get through its first cohort and see what lessons can be applied to future cohorts, Pearman said there is already demand for other types of mentoring programs in the region.
“We’re launching this with women who are already in the workforce,” she said. “We’re already getting asked, ‘When can we have one for our young college students?’ We have plans in the works for a program so we can reach out to sixth and seventh grade girls. That is an age that is often missed because they’re focusing on maybe high school careers.”
The organization plans to begin accepting applications for the program’s second cohort in November.