Mentor Training: Mentoring as an Alumna

Copy of Mentor Training Mentor Training: Mentoring as an Alumna

Welcome to the Mentor community!

We're thrilled to have you supporting girls in the Technovation program this season. Your experience as a former participant will be invaluable in guiding your team through their learning journey. Your insights and encouragement can make a significant difference and inspire them to reach their full potential.

Technovation Alumnae were Mentors during the 2024 season
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As a Technovation alumnae, I remember the excitement and sense of possibility that ignited within me when I first joined the program. It was a chance to explore my passion for technology and entrepreneurship while making a tangible impact on issues I cared about.

With five years of experience under my belt, I’ve understood firsthand the value of this program. I’ve had the opportunity to mentor three teams, including a beginner team, a junior team, and a senior team. I am rooting for my teams and can’t wait to see what they accomplish.

Virginia

Technovation Mentor, Ambassador, and former Program Participant

FROM STUDENT TO MENTOR: TIPS FOR SUCCESS

  • Share your Technovation experience to help the girls understand what to expect. Remember, you only have to share what you feel comfortable discussing with the team. Keep in mind that your students’ experiences may be different from yours.
  • Focus on encouraging them, offering guidance, and being a good listener. Highlight both the challenges and successes you faced, and remind them that every journey is unique. Most importantly, be supportive and patient as they navigate their own learning journey.
  • Mentors facilitate curriculum and support students throughout the season, but they don’t do the work for them.
  • Your role is to provide a structure for your team to work through the curriculum. Involve your team in planning and listen to their ideas to foster greater engagement.
  • Encourage open communication and create a positive, collaborative environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to contribute.
  • Providing constructive feedback and celebrating small successes can also help build confidence and keep the team motivated.

You were once a student participant—now you’re a Mentor! Reflect on the key differences between these roles. As a participant, you chose the problem you wanted to solve. Now, your role is to guide and support your students as they tackle an issue that’s important to them.

Here are some additional tips for first-time Mentors:

  1. Set Boundaries: Establish clear boundaries to maintain a healthy balance between Mentoring and your personal and professional life. Ensure that your students know when and how to reach out for support, and be clear about your availability.

  2. Be Patient and Adaptable: Understand that the process may take time and things might not always go as planned. Be flexible and patient as your team works through challenges.

  3. Encourage Collaboration: Foster a team environment where every member feels heard and valued. Encourage open discussions and teamwork to solve problems.

  • Mentors don’t do everything on their own – they are part of a community! Consider recruiting a co-Mentor to support your team, and review the resources available to you in the Mentor Resources training module. 
  • Additionally, connect with other alumnae by sharing and engaging on the #mentors Slack channel.

Once an Alumna, Always an Alumna

Alumnae Resources

As a Technovation Mentor, you're now also a valued member of our Alumnae community! There are many ways to stay connected and discover special opportunities tailored for Alumnae. Join our Alumnae LinkedIn group and subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on leadership, education, and professional opportunities worldwide.

Learn More

I still have a question

You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].

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Mentor Training: Prepare for your First Meeting

Copy of Mentor Training Mentor Training: Prepare for your First Meeting

PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST TEAM MEETING IN 5 STEPS​

  • Pick a location/online platform to meet
  • Create an agenda
  • Review the activities
  • Keep your team informed
  • Get excited!

USE THIS RESOURCE TO PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST MEETING

The Mentor Curriculum will be your best resource to prepare for your first, and all future meetings!  The Mentor curriculum is a Mentor project management tool.

Each unit of the student curriculum has this companion guide for mentors to help you feel more confident and prepared to support your team. Learn more about the Mentor curriculum ->

DECIDE WHERE TO MEET

In-Person Meeting

Find a central and public location that is accessible to all team members, for example: public libraries, community centres, coffee shops, etc.

Have at least one of the parents remain for the meeting

Send a calendar invitation, with the parents included, that includes the address of the meeting location

Determine a video conferencing software that will let you meet for the determined time

common video conferencing tools have time limits on the free version:

-Google Meet 1 hour

-Zoom 40 minutes

Send a calendar invite with the parents included and include the meeting link

Some teams opt for a hybrid meeting schedule, which means that sometimes they meet in person, and sometimes they meet virtually. 

It is important to communicate clearly so all team members know when and where they are meeting. Do not assume that students all have access to technology at home. Make sure everyone has a way to access the virtual meeting before scheduling.

Discuss meeting options with your team and agree on a time and place.

Send the team an invite so they can refer to it when they need information about the meeting make sure to include parents so they can help the students remember include the location.

Send the agenda with a reminder (24 hours in advance) of when and where the meeting will be.

CREATING SAFE LEARNING SPACES

Below are some important guidelines to review prior to meeting with your team:

  • Review Technovation’s  Volunteer Code of Conduct. 
  • Review our safety page.
    You will find resources for:
    • Creating a safe learning environment
    • Internet safety & privacy
    • Child Safety 
    • Anti-discrimination

Learn more about how to minimize prejudice through Pepperdine University’s Masters of Psychology research.

MEETING PLANNING TIPS

girl working on craft project

Logistics

  • Have team members confirm that they will be attending
  • Have a backup way to communicate with your team
  • Designate a meeting moderator – pick someone different each time
  • Practice online tools before starting a virtual meeting 
girls coding

Collaboration

  • Use free tools like Google Docs for real time collaboration
  • Share your screen in virtual meetings and make sure everyone can see the activities during in-person meetings
  • Encourage students to bring tools to engage and collaborate (ie. notebook, laptop, etc.)
girls getting help at computer

Team Building

  • Start the meeting with Ice Breaker questions to get students comfortable
  • Make it fun with themed meeting, games, etc. 
  • Have everyone take turns speaking, including your quieter sutdents. 
  • Be a positive, encouraging voice and provide constructive feedback when needed

REVIEW UNIT 1 CURRICULUM

Our online curriculum is designed to equip students with cutting edge skills through project based learning.

  • 45 lessons in 12 units with 60+ hrs of content
  • Step-by-step guide to build projects
  • Self-paced and flexible design

The curriculum can be adapted to fit within a variety of timelines. We recommend that students are given 40-60 hours of time to use the curriculum and build their projects.

Lessons include:

  • Videos
  • Interactive features
  • Activities with worksheet guides
Access Student Curriculum

MAKE AN AGENDA

Use the Mentor Curriculum to get comfortable with the goals of the activities. You'll also see if you need to prepare any documents or slides.

FACILITATE YOUR FIRST MEETING

You want to set a standard for the next 12 weeks, where the team will feel safe and comfortable, and trust one another. Below are activities to include in your first meeting: 

The internet is a great resource for a wide range of icebreaker activities

Go through submission guidelines and key dates

    • This helps the team understand what they will be building and the potential pacing of the program

Pick a video(or two!) from the app gallery to watch 

    • This show girls what they are capable of doing, what problems have been solved by other teams, what they are working towards

This agreement will help you and your team openly talk about: 

  • expected behaviors of other team members
    • of their mentor(s)
    • mentor(s)’s expectations of the students
  • scheduling
  • time commitment
    • be honest about how much time you can commit to mentoring
  • communication tools you all will use

Use the Mentor Copy of this agreement for guiding questions to support this process. 

The completed agreement does not need to be sent in to Technovation.

Go through the content in Unit 1 of the curriculum

Guide your team through completing each activity

  • Avoid giving immediate solutions when students are stuck on a concept. Instead, ask questions that guide them toward finding the answers themselves.
  • You are learning alongside the students. It is OK for you not to have all of the answers about the program as you get started! 
  • Recap the key goals that the team was able to achieve.

 

  • Assign the tasks to team members that need to be complete before the next meeting. Reminder: multiple team members can work together on a single activity.

 

  • Confirm a consistent time to meet in the future, so students can expect the meeting and are less likely to miss it

FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

  • Encourage students to send you updates of their work in advance so you are prepared to give feedback during your next team meeting

  • Focus your efforts! Determine what students need the most help with and what they already know

  • Embrace failure and mistakes, and turn them into learning moments. These will lead to breakthroughs and discoveries!

  • Send reminders about upcoming meetings and tasks that need to be done before the next meeting.

I still have a question

You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].

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Mentor Training: Connect with your Team

Copy of Mentor Training Mentor Training: Connect with your Team

YOU FOUND A TEAM, WHAT'S NEXT?

girls in green uniform and white shirts overlook a man in a white shirt working on a laptop
Send them an Email!

Introduce Yourself

Give a short introduction of who you are and why you decided to be a Mentor. Tell your team what you are looking forward to this season. You can even include a fun fact about yourself! 

Gather Relevant Information

Ask them to share the mentor communication form with their parents send back to you (optional, but encouraged). Review the resources available to prepare for your first meeting.

Schedule Your First Meeting

Suggest some times you are available to have your first team meeting, Ask students to share when works for them from that availability.

USING THE MENTOR COMMUNICATION FORM

Mentor Communication Form

The Mentor Communication Form is a useful tool for you to use with your team: 

  • It is a method to collect consent from parents/guardians to use a communication tool/platform chosen by the team.
  • It gives parents/guardians the option to share their contact information to be included.
  • It helps find a common method of communication for the team for the mentor, student and parent records to keep.

This form is for your team’s use, and does not need to be sent to Technovation. 

COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT TOOLS

Video Conferencing

Google Meet - Zoom -Big Blue Button

Written Communication

E-mail - Whatsapp -Discord (if students are 13+)

Brainstorming

Google - Jamboard Miro - Figma MindMeister - Padlet

Documentation

Google Docs - Google Sheets - Dropbox - Notion

DIDN'T HEAR BACK FROM YOUR TEAM?

Don’t worry! This may be the first time your team has participated in a program like this. Email them a reminder that you’d like to set up your first meeting.


If you haven’t heard back after three contact attempts, you can visit the platform to find another team to mentor. 

I still have a question

You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].

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Mentor Training 5: Find a team

Mentor Training Mentor Training 5: Find a team

FIND A TEAM

Once you have finished onboarding (completing your Mentor profile, completing training, and, if required, a background check), it’s time to look for a team! There are about 5 ways that you can look for a team to support this season. 

  • 1. You know the team, but there isn't a team made on the platform
  • 2. There is a Chapter or Club Ambassador local to you, that you can connect with
  • 3. Searching already formed teams on the platform
  • 4. Teams invite you to join their team on the platform
  • 5. Connecting with girls in your community

Below, we share in more detail how you can use each of the above listed strategies to find a team. Select the tab on the left that you are interested in learning more about to bring up the corresponding information.

If you know the students who will be on your team but they have not created a team yet, you as the Mentor can create one.

series of screenshots directing a mentor where to find the option to create a team on the Technovation platform

Once, you have created the team students can search for the team. They can then send a request to join the team, which you will need to accept.

If you are near a Chapter or Club, you can work with them to find a team!

 Technovation Girls Waterloo listed on the mentor dashboard with the button "Meet your chapter ambassador" outlined in a yellow box

Find your local Chapter or Club ambassador on your dashboard (pictured above) if there isn’t one listed, you may not be near a Chapter or Club, not to worry the information on tabs 3, 4, and 5 will help!

If you know a team has been created by the students you plan to support OR are looking for one to join, you can search existing teams through the platform.

The video below will show you how to search from your Mentor dashboard.

The same way Mentors can search for teams, teams can search for Mentors! You may log on and see “Invites from teams” on your dashboard under “Build your team”.

When looking through invites sent to you, think about:

  • Are you in or close to their timezone? – time zone converter
  • Are you comfortable supporting beginner, junior, and/or senior teams?
  • Are you likely to share a common language to make communication easier?

There is no pressure to accept every invite that is sent to you. The Technovation Team would prefer you support less teams really well than more teams poorly.

And please decline invitations you are not interested in. This helps teams figure out if they need to reach out to other Mentors.

There may not be enough girls registered in your area for you to find a team. You can tell girls you know about the program! Share it with:

  • coworkers who have kids
  • family members & friends
  • local schools
  • members of your community
  • other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

Sample message you can send:

I’m volunteering with Technovation Girls as a mentor for young women ages 8-18 building skills to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders! 

The program uses a hands-on learning model that brings youth and adults together to solve their most pressing problems with technology tools they build themselves. With the support of volunteer mentors, girls work in teams to code mobile apps or build AI prototypes that address real-world problems they’ve identified.

If you know a someone who would like to sign up, please pass this information on to them!

EFFECTIVELY USING THE PLATFORM TO FIND A TEAM

The Technovation platform is a great way to find teams. There are a few things to keep in mind, to make the most of the tool.

  • Responding to an invitation:
    • if you are unable to work with the team for any reason, simply click “Decline Invitation“. This will let the team know that are you not available and they should look for another mentor.
    • If you are able to work with the team, click “Accept the invitation“.
  • toggle discoverability: Under ‘My Profile’ there are options to help you control how you appear in searches on the platform. The table below explains when you would want to check and uncheck a setting option
Label of the setting
Check the box if you...
Uncheck the box if you...
Allow teams to find you in search results and invite you to join
want to receive team invitations
do not want to receive anymore team invitations
Indicate to teams that you can be an online, remote Mentor
can be a Mentor to teams virtually
are only interested in being a Mentor to a team in-person
Allow other mentors to find you in search results and connect via email
would like other Mentors to be able to reach out to you, potentially to co-Mentor a team with them
do not want other Mentors reaching out to you

I still have a question

You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].

This is the final lesson of the required course, congratulations!

There are additional lessons to help you further prepare to be a mentor in:

  • Connecting with your team
  • Preparing for your first team meeting
  • Mentoring as an Alumnae
  • Learner Friendly Language
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Mentor Training: Learner Friendly Language

Supplementary Mentor Training Mentor Training: Learner Friendly Language

Learning new concepts often comes with lots of terminology and jargon. While the terms are equally as important to understand as the concept itself, it can overwhelming for a new learner.

Using language that is approachable, will help build their understanding rather than memorize key terms. In this lesson, we’ll review learner-friendly language and how to create learner-friendly definitions.

According to Steele & Mills (2011) a learner (or student)-friendly definition is written by an adult (SLT, teacher, assistant) and is not constrained by space limitations, as a dictionary definition is. For example:

Word
Dictionary Definition
Learner-Friendly Definition
sympathy
harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another
understanding what another person is feeling because you have felt the same way before

CREATING LEARNER-FRIENDLY DEFINITIONS

Through a two-step process shared in Beck’s Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction about creating learner-friendly definitions, you can also create learner-friendly definitions.

1. Determine the word's typical use

Think about how the word is typically used and what meaning you are trying to convey when you use it.

Think about the connotations, or context or assumptions that are made when using the word.

2. Build a definition out of everyday language

Use words that are at the team’s level of understanding, avoiding overuse of formal terms.

The language should demonstrate the correct context.

Include words like “someone”, “something”, and “describes”

EXAMPLE: EXPLAINING DEBUGGING

dictionary.com defines debug as “to detect and remove defects or errors from.”

The word “remove” refers to taking out whatever is causing the error. Teams may get stuck on the removal part and not realize that fixing a bug can involve correcting how something was written in the code. 

A clearer learner-friendly definition could be 

“When someone debugs a computer program, they look for the mistakes in it and correct them or looks for unneeded code and removes it, so that it will run properly.”

The collinsdictionary.com is a great resource for learner-friendly definitions. 

These are a great starting point for you to modify from. Some words have example sentences demonstrating the word’s use and images to help with understanding the word. 

dictionary definition for coding from collins dictionary

If teams need more practice or different ways of learning terms, here are some other ways to make new terms learner-friendly (Stahl and Nagy, 2006):

  • share synonyms and antonyms
  • share examples and nonexamples
  • discuss similarities and differences between new terms and words the team knows
  • word association (have teams share the first word that comes to mind when you share a new word; this can be a fun way to assess team’s prior knowledge on a new concept)

I still have a question

You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].

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