Cover Letter

BENEFITS TO PROTEGES

Here are some of the benefits proteges can expect from having a mentor:

• Assistance in defining college/university goals, career goals, strategies and options • Build confidence to grow, overcome challenges and reach goals • Personalized attention geared toward specific needs • A sounding board for ideas and approaches • Access to finance industry insiders • Recommendations for helpful articles and resources

MENTORING ACROSS DIFFERENCES

Since launching the mentoring program a few years ago, RTSWS has discovered several things that have proven helpful to the mentor/protege relationship. Some of the girls will be of different socioeconomic, cultural and/or religious backgrounds. It can be a challenge to approach these topics.

Please take the time to read an article by Ida Abbott, a professional consultant specializing in mentoring, titled “Breaking Down Barriers to Mentoring Across Differences.”

You can find the article at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/breaking-down-barriers-mentoring-across-differences-ida-abbott/

The article illustrates how it can be limiting for the relationship to ignore the differences that exist between mentor and protege. You can open up these discussions by:

• Being honest and letting the protege see both your strengths and weaknesses.

• Not being afraid to show your vulnerability. By acknowledging your unawareness about certain situations, the protege becomes more at ease and less self-conscious about her own vulnerabilities.

• Show curiosity. Invite her to open up about her culture. Turn your inexperience with her situation into a genuine curiosity and ask about her life. Who is she? What is her life like? What motivated her to be a part of this program?

• Being empathetic to her situation. What does she want to learn? How does she plan to use what she learns? What risks and obstacles is she facing? Withhold assumptions about what is “right” for her based on your knowledge and experience.

• Adjust your agenda to better fit your protege. Be adaptable to the protege’s responses and be open to discussing topics you hadn’t planned.

• Keeping humor in the conversation. If something was misunderstood, laugh about it instead of dwelling on it.

• Treating the protege with respect. She will reciprocate.

Why Women Need Mentorship in the Workplace

by Chandra Philip-Lye & Ryan Carruthers, Feb 9, 2022

Mentorship for women is a meaningful way to encourage their advancement in the workplace. We spoke to several women at different stages of their careers to understand how they feel about mentorship and its impact on their careers.

Only six percent of Fortune 500 companies have a female CEO, according to research by DDI World. The lack of representation is appalling, but unfortunately, not surprising to many.

Despite some significant gains over the past several decades, women still face many challenges in the workplace, including:

• Pay inequity - women still get paid less than men for doing the same job. • Advancement barriers - female executives are still few and far between. Many women hold supportive or administrative roles in their companies. • Family-life imbalance - women with families face tougher hurdles to succeed at work compared to men with families.

There are overlapping reasons for this. They span political, socio-economic, and cultural realms. This article won’t go into those reasons as we’re not experts, but we do want to highlight what we have a lot of experience in: mentorship.

Why is female mentorship important in the workplace?

Consider these studies that speak to the benefits of mentorship:

• Employees with mentors are promoted five times more often than their non-mentored peers. • 87 percent of employees with mentors or that mentor others feel empowered by their relationships and attribute greater confidence to the experience. • In one study, retention and promotion rates for women participating in mentoring programs increased from 15 percent to 38 percent.

Providing women with mentors is a meaningful way to help them advance their careers. Mentors provide women with guidance on navigating their careers, advice on skill development, and ongoing support. Despite this, the same researchers at DDI World found that only 37 percent of women have had a mentor in their careers. Additionally, only 56 percent of companies have formal mentoring programs.

Mentorship plays a critical role in female advancement in the workplace.

The pandemic’s impact on women in the workplace

The pandemic had a disproportionate impact on women in the workplace. Over 800,000 women have

left their jobs. That is four times the number of men who’ve quit. And those that are left behind feel the burden much more.

What women need are support networks. These can be found in employee resource groups for women or formal mentoring programs. These communities or programs give women opportunities to build connections and find support.

How do women benefit from mentorship?

Mentorships hold many benefits for participants and the organizations that launch them. Here are some of the ways that women specifically benefit from mentorship.

Representation

Statistics show that many organizations lack substantial female representation in leadership roles. Workplace mentoring programs are able to provide female mentors who act as role models for other women in the company.

“Seeing women in leadership positions where they are respected, their insights are valued, and their ability to influence/create real impact on a team or company signals to others, like myself, that it’s possible.” - Evelyn Ly, Humi

These mentors are able to guide and advise these other women. They’re also able to inspire them to achieve more. Seeing a leader in your organization that you can identify with gives you confidence that you too can advance to that level.

“The biggest benefit of having a career mentor (no matter the gender) is that it helps you imagine what a brighter, more successful future could look like for you. I grew up in a low-income family with very few professional female role models—and the disparity in workplace representation between men and women meant that I struggled to find examples of women like me who were achieving the things I wanted to achieve.” - Lizzy Burnam, User Interviews

Connections

Mentorships also allow women to find support and encouragement in their workplace. In a workplace where women are a minority, they may feel isolated. Developing a relationship with other women in business can help them feel more connected.

“Having someone in one’s corner creates an immense psychological safety for women at the workplace.” - Anett Tarnokova, Butter

Women can also benefit by building networks of key and influential people to get to know other successful leaders through their mentors. These connections can provide women with the confidence to pursue new opportunities.

“Mentors have acted as my ‘anchors’ throughout my career by setting an example for me and giving me the courage to try things that otherwise might’ve seemed a bit too audacious and wildly out of my reach.” - Lizzy Burnam, User Interviews

Headline Here SPRING MENTORSHIP OUTLINE

Track 1: Recommended for students who have never participated in RTSWS Spring Mentorship before. Track 2: Recommended for students who participated in the Spring Mentorship previously or are under the age of 16.

There are no prerequisites to either mentorship track.

Session 1

• Introduction • Career Quiz • Discuss Potential Career Paths • Challenge: Begin listing clubs, activities and accomplishments for resume/CV building

Session 2

• Introduction to RTSWS Vocational & Career Platform • Review Resume/CV Building Tips • Begin Building Protege Resume/CV • Challenge: Continue working on your resume/CV for review in Session 3

Session 3

Track 1:

• Review Protege Resume/CV • Share Your Resume/CV • Article: Dear female job seeker... • Introduction to LinkedIn • Challenge: Create your own LinkedIn profile

Session 4

Track 1:

• Continue building LinkedIn Profile • Write a Cover Letter • Learn Professional Email Tips • Challenge: Type up your cover letter

Session 3

Track 2:

• Review Protege Resume/CV • Share Your Resume/CV • Article: Dear female job seeker... • Write a Cover Letter • Challenge: Continue creating a cover letter

Session 4

Track 2:

• Finalize Your Cover Letter • Learn Professional Email Tips • How to Apply for an Internship or Job • Challenge: Continue practicing professional emails

Session 5

Track 1:

• How to Apply for an Internship or Job • Review Interview Tips • Mock Interview • Challenge: RTSWS end of course survey

Session 5

Track 2:

• Review Interview Tips • Mock Interview • Sending a Thank You Email • Challenge: RTSWS end of course survey

Headline Here ADDITIONAL TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

• Academic development and ways to improve the path toward college/university

• College/university applications, internships or job applications

• Scholarship applications

• Student, teacher or professor roles and interactions

• Best practices for studying

• Resource recommendations

• Stock and bond market performance

• Entrepreneurship

• Saving and investing

• Goals and progress toward goals

• Networking

• Job shadowing

• Internship opportunities

• Types of career opportunities available within the finance industry

• Female representation in math and finance

• Building confidence

Protege’s Name:

Protege’s Contact Info: