by Wolfram Lunscher, R7 Life Members Coordinator
The afternoon of Friday November 1, 2024 saw the launch of Region 7’s Group Mentoring Initiative (GMI) pilot in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This event had been planned all year by the late Terry Branch, former R7 life members coordinator, and was the third R7 event of 2024 promoting the initiative, the previous ones being September 15 at the IEEE Canada Student Congress in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the October 10 Hamilton section online 15th anniversary celebration of IEEE Day.
The pilot marked the formal introduction of the Group Mentoring concept before a live target audience of university and community college students; and was presented by the full scope of envisioned mentors: Young Professionals (YP), Women in Engineering (WIE), Senior Members and Life Members. The pilot was a session within Ottawa’s Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC, https://www.ieeespac.ca), which is run by Ottawa’s three IEEE student chapters, and sponsored by Ottawa section and local industry. 150 students registered for the event, and numerous other professionals from industry participated bringing the total present to about 200. IEEE life members contributed approximately $1500 (CAD) funds from R7, IEEE LMC, and Ottawa Section’s LMAG budget primarily to provide refreshments which were highly appreciated.
The event was divided into a networking area and a presentation area. The networking area included industry and IEEE exhibits. Among the IEEE exhibits was an LMAG table using the tablecloth and table topper provided by Laura Hall, our administrator in Piscataway NJ, to showcase life membership benefits, and to promote our mentorship initiative. The presentation area hosted the opening keynote and conference sessions.
Traffic at our table saw definite enthusiastic interest in holding future mentorship events at the local universities. In the presentation area, Dr. Nima Javanbakht, Ottawa Section YP chair, introduced the Group Mentoring Initiative during the opening keynote, presenting its history from Terry Branch’s Knowledge Based Community concept, through to its merger with Howard Wolfman’s global Group Mentoring Initiative at the Austin Life Members Conference in April this year; and outlining its goal of sharing the experience of life members and other working professionals with students to advance their career and education choices.
Later that afternoon, we held the “Empowering Students: Group Mentoring Panel” session, before a live audience. Seven participated in the panel including: moderator Afsoon Alidadi Shamsabadi, Ottawa Section WIE chair; Janet Davis, former Ottawa Section chair; Winnie Ye, Global WIE chair-elect; Azfar Adib, R7 Regional Student Representative; Moha Abbaszadeh, Hamilton Section WIE chair, Nima Javanbakht Ottawa Section YP chair, and Wolfram Lunscher, Ottawa Section Life Members chair. The session began with a brief summary of Terry Branch’s vision for the mentoring initiative including its principal goal of empowering students to make sound educational and career choices. To that end, the panel provided reflections on our own career
experiences. To focus the discussion, moderator Afsoon Alidadi Shamsabadi directed three prepared questions to the panel:
- What common challenges do early-career professionals face, and how can students prepare for them? Perhaps share any challenges you encountered when you began your first job, and how did you overcome it.
- Did you experience a steep learning curve in your first job after graduation and, if so, how did you cope?
- What makes a successful leader? How do you teach leadership and inspire others to become a good leader?
We had more questions prepared, but time got tight leaving no opportunity for audience questions. The panel session was well attended, and positive feedback was received. In fact, the audience wished that it could have been longer in duration.
The GMI Panel from left to right: Dr. Nima Javanbakht, Ottawa Section YP chair; Moha Abbaszadeh, Hamilton Section WIE chair; Azfar Adib, Region 7 Regional Student Representative; Prof. Winnie Ye, Global WIE chair-elect; Janet Davis, former Ottawa Section chair; Wolfram Lunscher, Ottawa Section Life Members chair; and Afsoon Alidadi Shamsabadi (moderator), Ottawa Section WIE chair.
