Successful start of TANDEM mentoring programs
On Wednesday February 17, 2021 the mentoring programs TANDEMstud, TANDEMdok and TANDEMplus officially started a new circle in a festive setting.
A total of around 90 mentees, mentors, and other guests accepted the invitation to the three-hour online event.
In her welcoming address, Professor Doris Klee, Vice Rector for Human Resources and Young Academics, emphasized that the TANDEM mentoring programs have proven their worth over many years as part of the human resources and organizational development concept and are therefore of great importance to RWTH Aachen University. In addition, Ralitsa Petrova-Stoyanov, head of IGaD, drew attention in her welcoming speech to the very personal added value that direct support from mentors can have for one's own career.
After the virtual presentation of their certificates, last year's participants gave entertaining résumés of their TANDEM time in groups, thus giving the new mentees their first valuable insights into the use of the program modules mentoring, training and networking. Of course, the new female students, Phd students and female postdocs also had the opportunity to introduce themselves to all those present.
The keynote speech was given by Professor Gühring from HAW Esslingen. Her presentation on career options as a professor at a university of applied sciences met with lively interest among the participants, as the subsequent discussion showed.
Finally, the program participants met in virtual rooms, either to get to know each other or to further deepen their already existing network.
The event was moderated by program coordinators Kati Korst and Gitta Doebert, with graphic designer Franziska Ruflair providing the graphic summary.
The admission of the new mentees was again preceded by very successful application phases. TANDEMstud and TANDEMdok, which are aimed at female students and PhDstudents, are experiencing ever-increasing demand, and TANDEMplus, the program for female postdocs, has also made a very promising start to a new edition: After many years in cooperation with other universities and research institutions, it is now being continued under the sole responsibility of RWTH Aachen University.