Review: Anniversary Event - 10 years of kite-mentoring
October 12-13, 2023
On October 12-13, 2023 the “kite-mentoring” program at the University of Freiburg celebrated 10 years of empowering female early career researchers. The eument-net - European mentoring network - supported this celebration with a joint International conference in Freiburg for its members and all interested parties.
On the first Conference day, we had two keynote speakers, who discussed about gender equality and mentoring in academia:
Prof. Dr. Tomas Brage (Lund University, Sweden)
“Gender bias in academia - a threat to academic values”
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Prof. Dr. Marieke van den Brink (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands)
“Mentoring in higher education – supporting career development and organizational change”
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Conference Venue
Program October 12, 2023
After the official opening, the coordinator of the kite-mentoring program (Dr. Evelyn Rusdea) briefly presented how this program empowers women in the STEM fields at the University of Freiburg since 10 years now.
During flash talks (20 minutes sessions) attendees had the opportunity to hear the different perspectives from mentors, current mentees and alumnae, including an alumna, who recently received a professorship.
After a short coffee break, the invited speakers Prof. Tomas Brage from Lund University, Sweden and Prof. Marieke van den Brink from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands presented their special topics regarding Gender bias in academia and Mentoring in higher education - supporting measure for career development.
The general discussion after the talks was moderated - as the whole event - by Colette Schrodi from ESF in Strasbourg. The program continued with a small career fair for mentees and alumnae, starting with a brief presentation of the invited partners from industry.
The first conference day ended with networking in the Lounge of IMBIT including finger food and refreshments.
13:00 | Registration |
14:00 |
Opening
Prof. Ilka Diester – Spokesperson of BrainLinks-BrainTools (video message)
Prof. Sonja Albers – Dean Faculty of Biology
Dr. Regina Herzog – Equal Opportunities Officer
Ekaterina Masetkina – President of eument-net
Dr. Evelyn Rusdea – Coordinator kite-mentoring
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14:30 | Evelyn Rusdea: kite-mentoring-program – 10 years of supporting women in STEM |
14:50 |
Flash-talk kite-mentoring: moderated questions to mentees, alumnae, mentors |
Flash-talk University: moderated questions with representatives of the University Freiburg: |
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15:30 | Coffee break |
16:00 |
Prof. Tomas Brage (Lund Univ, Sweden)
„Gender bias in academia - a threat to academic values“ |
16:40 |
Prof. Marieke van den Brink (Radboud Univ. Nijmegen, Netherlands)
„Mentoring in higher education – supporting career development and organizational change“
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17:20 |
Discussion with invited speakers
Moderation: Colette Schrodi (European Science Foundation Strasbourg, F)
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17:50 | Introduction and short presentation of invited industry partners |
18:00 | Intermezzo Akaishi Daiko |
18:10 | Career fair & networking in the lounge, with finger food & refreshments |
Program October 13, 2023
The second conference day began with our eument-net Expert exchange involving Prof. Marieke van den Brink. We welcomed back Prof. van den Brink, who explored how inclusive gender equality approaches can be integrated into mentoring programs. Afterwards attendees in smaller groups shared their own experience from the perspectives of mentoring program coordinators, gender equality officers, career advisors, personnel developers, mentees and mentors.
Four key aspects had been in the focus of the exchange:
♦ recruitment of mentors
♦ mentors’ skills
♦ attitudes and awareness of institutions
♦ external influences and driving forces.
The Expert exchange concluded with a plenary discussion.
International Conference - Expert exchange
09:00 |
Arrival and welcoming
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09:30 |
How to integrate inclusive gender equality approaches into mentoring programs?
Input: Prof. Marieke van den Brink
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10:45 |
Coffee break
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11:45 |
Expert exchange:
Recruitment of mentors / mentor's skills Attitude and awareness of institutions External influences and driving forces |
12:30 | Lunch & Get together |
13:30 | General Assembly of eument-net with special focus on future development, activities and needs of eument-net’s members |
15:30 | End of the eument-net meeting |
In the afternoon, we invited all mentees and alumnae of “kite-mentoring” and all others who were interested to attend a strategic networking session about the vision: what next steps “kite-mentoring” should take in the next decade?
The official conference program ended with a workshop/discussion entitled “Be visible in Networking” with the experts Ashley Matthäus and Dr. Eleftheria Egel from the German-American Business Community (GABC) Freiburg.
Mentees & ALUMNAE: Networking
16:00 |
Quo vadis kite-mentoring?
What is our vision – where should we go?
Discussion & Strategic networking |
17:00 |
Be visible in Networking
Input: Ashley Matthäus & Eleftheria Egel (German-American Business Community, GABC, Freiburg) |
Evening program
For closing, "kite-mentoring" and eument-net organized a joint dinner and networking for all attendees at "Paradies" - a traditional beer garden in Freiburg.
19:00 |
Joint dinner and networking event for all "kite-mentoring" and eument-net attendees
at “Paradies" beer garden (Mathildenstr. 26, 79106 Freiburg) |