\n1. Establishes links between students, professors, and experienced professionals
\n2. Encourages students to develop extracurricular skills
\n3. Helps students overcome difficulties that may otherwise have caused them to give up on their course or career
\n4. Identifies issues related to the adversities of professional careers and helps people overcome them
\n5. Enriches the teaching and research activities of the mentors<\/div>\n
Mentoring has been part of the daily life of students at USP\u2019s School of Medicine (FM) for two decades. Groups of students from different academic years meet with a professor from the school or a doctor from the institution\u2019s teaching hospital on a monthly basis to share experiences and discuss the path to becoming a doctor. The program is annual and can be renewed yearly. Students interested in participating nominate up to three professors or doctors involved in the program that they would like as their mentor. \u201cWe let students choose because we believe that the mentoring relationship relies on identification and trust. The positive outcomes are based on this foundation,\u201d says Patr\u00edcia Lacerda Bellodi, a psychologist who has headed the program since it began in 2001.<\/p>\n
With 320 students enrolled in 2021, the program has 32 mentors from a range of medical specialties. Before taking on the commitment as mentors, those interested go through interviews and a training process. \u201cThe intention is for them to understand the program’s objectives and the concept of mentoring, which is very different to tutoring, more focused on facilitating and remediating the learning process. Mentors work in more broadly and comprehensively, inspiring careers, stimulating the growth of the student as a whole,\u201d summarizes Bellodi.<\/p>\n
At FM, each mentoring group also includes a \u201cmediator,\u201d a position occupied by a student in the course\u2019s final phase (an intern) or who is already doing their residency. Two decades after the program started, some of the current mentors were once mentees themselves. \u201cMentoring is a two-way relationship, benefiting not only the students, but also the mentors, who can be reenergized by their contact with young students,\u201d adds Bellodi.<\/p>\n
Based on the success of these initiatives, USP\u2019s Associate Dean\u2019s Office for Undergraduates plans to create an office for planning and running mentor programs in the coming months. Called E-Ment and headed by Bellodi, the office will be tasked with stimulating the culture and practice of mentoring among professors and students university-wide.<\/p>\n
The S\u00e3o Paulo School of Medicine (EPM) at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP) has a mentoring program, created and run by Professor Jos\u00e9 Medina since 2007, that helps undergraduates develop skills and build professional identities. \u201cWe discuss aspects beyond academic life, with the potential to influence the career choices that students will make,\u201d explains Medina. The mentoring starts in the first year and students can continue until they finish the course if they wish. The program currently has about 230 mentees and 40 mentors, all of whom are professors at the school.<\/p>\n
One of the observed benefits of university mentoring programs is a reduction in dropout rates among students in situations of economic and social vulnerability. Poli-Retribua endeavors to ensure the diversity of its student body and is supported by the Association of Engineers at Polytechnic Schools (AEP), which draws up a list of candidates, prioritized by vulnerability, to be used as a basis for selecting mentees and scholarship beneficiaries. The program currently has around 130 polytechnic engineers working as mentors and serves 230 students from 17 courses. In addition to traditional counseling, Poli-Retribua also provides financial assistance, offering students access to funds obtained from donations made through the project’s website. \u201cOur goal is quite clear: to ensure that students in more difficult situations can complete the course, offering support from the beginning of the course to the end,\u201d explains Marcos Rodrigues, a retired professor at Poli-USP and head of the program.<\/p>\n
At Poli-USP, mentees are usually the first in their family to go to university. \u201cMany of them do not have any financial support at home, where they often face opposition to the idea of studying full-time,\u201d says Rodrigues. Since 2017, 81 scholarships have been awarded, providing R$700 per month for a year. \u201cAdded to other financial aid offered by the university\u2019s Social Assistance Department (SAS), these funds can make a real difference to the lives of these students,\u201d adds Rodrigues.<\/p>\n
One clear benefit is the reduction in dropout rates among students in situations of economic and social vulnerability<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Former Poli-USP students interested in acting as mentors sign up via the Poli-Retribua website. After an interview, a matching procedure aims to identify mentees with the most compatible profiles. \u201cWe already have some mentors who are former mentees, demonstrating the virtuous cycle that the project was designed to foster,\u201d observes Rodrigues. As well as guidance on academic life, Poli-Retribua mentors help students search for internships, write r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, and prepare for interviews. The team behind the program are now working on a way to replicate the initiative outside the school. \u201cThe hope is that Poli-Retribua can be adopted in other educational institutions. We are going to present the project to student associations, to allow them to use our experience and know-how in their own mentoring programs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Mentoring processes involving professors and students can also impact relationships between professionals with different levels of experience. To investigate how this professional rapport develops, Aline Maria de Medeiros Rodrigues Reali, a researcher from the Center for Education and Human Sciences at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar), led three studies that followed public school teachers in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cMany teachers at the beginning of their careers, with less than five years of experience, have questions about teaching in practice, since their training takes place through action in the classroom,\u201d observes Reali. In the first study, which took place between 2004 and 2007, 52 teachers in the early stages of their careers were advised by 10 retired education professionals, including school principals and teaching assistants. In the second study, conducted between 2012 and 2016, 75 new kindergarten and elementary school teachers were mentored by 30 education professionals, including school principals and pedagogical coordinators. In the third, between 2017 and 2021, 80 elementary school and adult education teachers were mentored by 14 teachers with at least 10 years of experience in the public school system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not uncommon for teachers at the beginning of their careers to find themselves in very complex situations, whether that be taking on classes that are considered difficult or facing adversities that require experience they do not yet have,\u201d explains Reali. \u201cOur research allowed us to analyze the main demands related to professional training, beyond that described in the literature. As a result, we found that by placing the pedagogical practices of new teachers as a central theme, mentoring helps them reflect on their attitudes and develop more effective solutions to the problems they face,\u201d she summarizes.<\/p>\n
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