Mentoring program will be open only to BIT students. Prof. Vishal Shah, Associate Dean, Alumni & International Relations will be the bridge between students and mentors. As the mentors have different skills and students also have different interests, Prof/ Vishal Shah will match students' interest with the mentors' skills. To start with only two students will be assigned to each mentor. Also, to initiate and learn from the program we will begin with only five mentors. Students with aptitude in research and advanced studies will be assigned to Prof. Alok Chaturvedi and Prof. Aatmesh Shrivastava while students with interests in leadership and entrepreneurship will have Rohit Prasad, Anjan Lahiri and Deven Sharma as their mentors.
Students will share their interests with mentors such as seeking guidance on research, career, programs they like and want to go. Other examples could be students telling the mentors their interests and what they have done so for and would like guidance on what they should do next. Also, students may seek mentor's guidance on what may be their best option such as: Grad school, entrepreneurship or job in India. students' objective of the mentoring program should not be to seek help in looking for a job.
For students seeking guidance as part of the mentoring program it would be for mentors to help a student to come up with a solid research plan and project ending in publishing a paper. Mentors.will also help a student who till now had no exposure but has drive, ambition and is hard working to succeed, who otherwise will not be able to do that on his own.
In the long term some realistic expectations for the Mentoring program are as follows:
No more than 2-3 students will be assigned to a Mentor for the duration of two semesters/one year. Every year new students will be assigned to mentors.
A maximum of about 6 hours of time during the year should be expected of the Mentor's time. A student can communicate with his mentor via email or a phone call.
Mentorship program will primarily consist of one-on-one interaction between the student and the mentor for career guidance and discussion to help make a decision. It will be more like a parental guidance.
Mentors will be able to provide help and guidance on a specific project to what a student is trying to achieve. Also, provide guidance/respond to specific question(s) that a student may have.
