An online workshop on mentor-mentee system for Mentoring Program Coordinators was organised by Amity Academic Staff College, Amity University Uttar Pradesh (AUUP). The day-long workshop was organised for the orientation of the Mentoring Program Coordinators for an effective and outcome based mentoring and had the presence of 270 Mentoring Program Coordinators (MPCs) and Faculty Mentors (FM) from all AUUP campuses at Noida, Lucknow and Greater Noida.
Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University began the proceedings by sharing that mentoring system is an integral part of Amity Education system and the mentor- mentee system is an important pillar at AUUP. “It has been two decades of the program where the mentees are getting nurtured and cared by mentors. At AUUP, mentoring system is four-tier model where all tier owner works in collaboration for the overall growth of the mentee,” stated Dr. Shukla.
Dr. Sanjeev Bansal, Dean FMS and Director Amity Business School focused on the theme -Leveraging on Four Tier Mentor-Mentee System for Student Development for Industry 4.0. He emphasized that the objective of any mentoring program is concerned with the “Career advancement and Psychological aspects of the mentees”. He described that Amity’s 4 tier mentoring relationship of Faculty Mentor, Industry Mentor, Alumni Mentor and Parent Mentor plays a crucial role for any mentoring system to be effective. He captioned the Mentoring Process as Building Blocks wherein he emphasized the vision of Amity “Where Modernity Blends with Tradition” and mentoring inculcates the qualities of Positive Attitude, Proactive Approach, Dynamism and Team work along with integrity and dedication leads to Competitive Advantage.
Prof. (Dr.) Manoj Kumar Pandey, Jt. Head, Amity School of Engineering and Technology (ASET), presented his views on the topic “Attributes of a mentor”. He averred that mentoring is an indispensable and significant aspect in which three primary functions of the mentee are taken care of including academic, career and emotions of the mentee. “Mentoring is a serious profession where mentors should be totally invested and enthusiastic about the mentees growth. A mentor should be a good communicator and a passionate listener,” said Dr. Pande. He also shared that there must be a frequency match between mentor & mentee for a successful relation between the two.
Prof. (Dr.) Alpana Kakkar, Dy. Dean of Students’ Welfare gave a brief of the online mentor-mentee system where she discussed the new features coming up in next version of the Amity University online mentor-mentee system on the Intranet Amizone portal. She also responded to questions raised by the mentors.
Mentoring Program Coordinators Dr Neha Taneja from Amity Institute of Public Health and Dr Kalpana Singh from Amity School of Economics shared the functioning of mentor-mentee group activity sessions and Individual sessions at their respective Institutions both before and after lockdown. Both the speakers highlighted the importance of the student interaction outside the classroom with faculty mentor, handholding by alumni mentors and guidance by Industry mentors in the overall development of the students on academic, personal and professional front. They also focused on some important cases where the mentors supported the mentees in their changing behaviors like depression or anxiety; feelings and experiences during the lockdown which their mentees had shared on Ms-Teams Mentor-Mentee online sessions and how constant connect of mentors have given them strength to take COVID-19 as a challenge to fight and win.