MentorNet: An Electronic Partnership
to Retain Women in Science and Engineering

By Carol Muller

Mentoring is a known strategy for improving the retention of women students in engineering and related sciences. Students benefit from mentors who can help acquaint them with opportunities in their fields, offer guidance and advice based on experience, and provide support, encouragement, and access to professional networks for further career development. Mentoring offers personal, one-on-one attention and assistance in decoding less obvious cultural and structural elements of a field.

Structured mentoring programs have proliferated. Research shows, however, that mentoring relationships may falter due to the failure of mentor and protégé to communicate because of time and distance constraints. Many students don't even have access to mentors in the first place because of these limitations.

E-mail and the World Wide Web have the potential to reduce or even eliminate the time and effort required to arrange mentoring meetings. MentorNet, a two-year-old partnership among colleges and universities, corporations, government agencies, and professional socie-ties, pairs undergraduate and graduate women studying engineering and related sciences with volunteers in industry in year-long structured mentoring relationships conducted via e-mail. It offers on-line applications, matching, training, and ongoing coaching for participants, as well as evaluation. In 1999, MentorNet matched nearly 1,200 students from 38 campuses nationwide with mentors.

Mentors and Protégés
Student participants in MentorNetthe protégésare women studying engineering, science and math fields at any post-secondary level (first-year undergraduate through postdoctoral). These students are considering scientific or technical careers in industry and are currently enrolled in one of MentorNet's participating campuses [see sidebar for list]. Through MentorNet, they receive information, support and encouragement. They gain an experienced professional in their field who cares about their success, along with the opportunity to explore and visualize the future. Protégés also learn about the process and value of mentoring, which will be helpful to them as they continue in their careers.

Industry professionals trained in scientific and technical fields volunteer their time as mentors to demonstrate their support of retaining more women in science and engineering. Mentors gain greater understanding of their own profession and competence as well as links to new professional networks. Through participation in MentorNet and its mentor training, mentors are likely to acquire information about the causes and potential remedies for women's under-representation in scientific and technical fields.

Mentors are recruited primarily through corporations, government labs, and professional societies. Industrial mentors represent an increasingly wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. computer science, chemistry, geology, physics, biochemistry, and the various branches of engineering) and different industries (e.g. computers, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemical products, electronics, gas and petroleum, biotechnology, environmental engineering, manufacturing, technical consulting). Despite a very short time period for recruitment, MentorNet's start-up semester attracted 241 mentors; in 1998-99, 693 mentors volunteered; for the 1999-2000 program, 1,525 mentors applied.

Other active participants in MentorNet are the designated program representatives in colleges and universities, corporations, government labs, and professional societies. These are the people who identify and recruit participants, certify eligibility, provide information about their organization, participate in evaluation, and are available to solve problems.

How E-mentoring Works
"E-mentoring," also sometimes termed telementoring, cybermentoring, or virtual mentoring, describes a mentoring relationship which uses the tools of electronic communications either to extend and enhance an existing mentoring relationship, or to create one where it would not otherwise exist. For those of us who have become quite comfortable with the use of e-mail over the last decade or more, the benefits of using e-mail for mentoring include:

• The technology is relatively easy, comfortable, and accessible for regular computer users.
• Communication is not dependent on location or geographic proximity of mentors and protégés.
• The asynchronous quality of e-mail allows for convenient communication across time zones and across lifestyle differences. A student can query a mentor at 2 a.m., and the mentor can respond early the next morning, each at times convenient for the individual.
• In using e-mail to exchange information and "converse," we avoid the additional time and related costs of setting up appointments, determining when we will talk, where we will meet, how we will travel to meet. Though electronic communications are not a perfect substitute for face-to-face communication, and examples of miscues and misunderstandings abound, through training and/or experience, users find many cases in which the advantages of e-mail outweigh the disadvantages, and learn to discern when other forms of communication may be preferable.
• E-mail allows communication to be thoughtful and deliberate. MentorNet participants can take time in composing a message, to get their query or response to a point where it reflects just what they want to say.
• E-mail provides a record of communication. A protégé inspired by a mentor's advice can return to it again and again; a mentor can review a previous e-mail message sent by a student to recall an exchange which may have taken place several weeks previously.
• Electronic communications downplay status differences. Protégés can easily communicate without being intimidated or unnecessarily influenced by differences in age, style of dress, office furnishings, security and/or secretarial screening.
• Through e-mail, those who may be on the margins of mainstream groups have more opportunities to participate fully in conversational exchanges. When a student is the only woman or one of few women in an engineering or physics classroom, she may feel isolated from her peers and may be less likely than her male classmates to participate fully in discussions and exchanges.

While research to understand the full extent of human interactions with electronic communications is fairly new, it is evident from early findings that the Internet represents a social technology which connects and affiliates people. While some MentorNet students and mentors do hold meetings or use telephones, videoconferencing or other forms of communication, many of them use e-mail exclusively.

Mentor Training
Few people can serve as effective mentors without prior guidance and understanding of the purpose and process of mentoring. The mentoring experience often requires support and follow-up. MentorNet's on-line Guide for Mentors and the Guide for Students offer suggestions for developing successful mentoring relationships. How electronic communication differs from face-to-face communication is explained along with advice on how to communicate via e-mail. Obstacles underrepresented students face in engineering and related scientific fields are explored, as are issues of cross-gender and cross-cultural mentoring.

Mentors are encouraged to learn about the specific needs and issues of their protégés. For example, first- year undergraduate students often begin their college careers in euphoria, but become concerned about their academic work during their first midterms; some students actually do believe that a "B" in introductory calculus means they are not capable of succeeding in a science or engineering field. An industrial mentor can help put performance in perspective, as well as encourage the student to take advantage of available assistance.

Long-Term Sustainability
A project of the magnitude of MentorNet requires a consortium of partners. All of the participating colleges and universities, corporations, government agencies, and professional societies commit resources including labor, technical expertise, and financial support. The salience of the program is high for partnering organizations whose mission incorporates the retention of women in scientific and technical fields.

The pilot semester for MentorNet was funded with start-up grants provided by the AT&T and Intel Foundations; a one-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post- Secondary Education (FIPSE) and subsequent grants from AT&T, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Texaco, SPIE, and the IEEE Foundation. In 1999-2000, additional funding has been provided by Ford Motor Company, Los Alamos National Lab, SAP Labs, and FIPSE (for a three-year planning and implementation project to extend MentorNet to community colleges).

Future Plans
MentorNet has many prospects and ambitions for the future. First among these must be securing resources to support the program's goals and objectives. Plans are underway for dues-based memberships to supplement MentorNet's funding.

Opportunities abound for extending electronic mentoring. In 2000-01, for example, MentorNet will begin to include students attending community colleges, after developing specialized materials and a program designed specifically for the needs of this population. Other future initiatives may involve extending MentorNet opportunities beyond the borders of the United States; to young professionals; to other under-represented groups; and/or to pre-college students. The potential for leveraging Internet technology to connect mentors and protégés is limitless, with priorities established by those joining the partnership.

Acknowledgments: MentorNet is the result of the generous funding provided by sponsors including the AT&T Foundation, the Intel Foundation, IBM, Ford Motor Company, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Texaco, SAP Labs, the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), Los Alamos National Labs, the IEEE Foundation, and SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering, and facilities space provided by the College of Engineering at San Jose State University.

Carol B. Muller is founder and executive director of MentorNet, based at San José State University; a consulting associate professor of engineering at Stanford University; and a senior research associate at Dartmouth College. With 22 years of experience in higher education administration, Muller has long been interested and active in research, policy and practice related to gender issues in education and employment.