In the spirit of new beginnings, we are excited to share that we are launching a new initiative in COED in response to feedback and suggestions gathered at our last COED Fall meeting. Born out of the desire to connect meaningfully in conversation throughout the academic year, and to learn with and from one another, we hope you’ll join in participating in Co-mentorship with COED.
What is Co-Mentorship?
As members of COED, we learn with and from one another in the community. It is in this collaborative and often reciprocal spirit that we hope and intend to bring folx together as co-mentors as part of a new (and exciting!) initiative we’re launching this Spring 2022. Co-mentorship is emergent in nature and ideally offers an open and dynamic space for exploring shared interests and curiosities, as well as challenges and opportunities, both personal and professional in nature. This co-mentorship initiative will provide intentional and structured ways to connect meaningfully in one-to-one conversations with COED colleagues. We invite you to engage with us in upcoming formal and informal moments of co-mentorship!
In what ways is Co-Mentorship distinctive from other COED programming?
Co-mentorship offers a unique opportunity for COED members to connect in one-on-one conversation and to further develop relationships within the organization with intention throughout the academic year. These co-mentoring opportunities hold the potential for creating a relational connection that invites members to dig deeper into topics and areas of interest for both involved, with a more personal and less public dyadic exchange of lived experiences than would be offered in the context of Communities of Practice (CoPs), Action Learning Sets (ActLS), and/or Fika Fridays. Plus, with the co-mentorship structure, there are several ways to engage and/or sustain these relationships moving forward–we encourage you to experiment and choose your own meaningful pathway of mentorship!
Why might I engage in COED co-mentorship? How do I get involved?
Pause, reflect, and connect. These sentiments are part of the promise and premise of co-mentorship activity. Here are some of the ways that we intend to cultivate co-mentorship:
Co-Mentorship
The COED co-mentorship program launched with great success on June 10, 2022. We will be hosting the next co-mentorship session on Wednesday, July 19th, 2023, from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm EST on Zoom. These sessions will continue once per term.
For each co-mentorship connection, there will be a different theme or focus. We will also provide some prompts in each round in case that’s helpful in getting the conversation started.
We will come together as a group at the beginning of the session for an introduction to COED Co-Mentorship. From there, we will offer choices in terms of themed breakout rooms so that you can engage in an emergent, organic conversation in duos, trios, or quartets! Finally, we will come together again as a large group to debrief and discuss next steps for continuing your engagement in COED Co-Mentorship betwixt and between these events!
Slack
We are starting a slack channel for COED! One of the main channels will be used for COED Co-Mentorship and will provide you with an opportunity to stay connected in an ongoing manner throughout the academic year!
Join the COED Slack channel here.
Co-Mentorship Hub
Last but certainly not least, we created a space in the Google Suite as a Co-Mentorship Hub for members who are interested in creating and sharing a profile to both seek and find meaningful connections with like-minded colleagues. These profiles will be dynamic and will be updated by members themselves. A template for these profiles will be shared at the June launch in anticipation of the Hub opening in Fall 2022. The profiles will include the following:
- a Bitmoji and/or profile picture,
- your profile information (name, institution, job title),
- three areas that you’re passionate about,
- three areas that you’d like to learn more about, and
- anything else you’d like to share).
The Co-Mentorship Hub Google Drive folder will be shared at the June 10th kickoff meeting and again in the Fall. Please connect with the COED Executive via email if you need the link to the Co-Mentorship Hub folder to view and/or add your own profile.
