Mentor Training 6: Find a Team

FIND A TEAM

Once you have finished onboarding (completing your background check, training, and profile), it’s time to look for a team! There are a couple of 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 how you can search for a team on the platform. More details about matching with teams will be available soon.

1. Create a team

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.

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.

2. Contact your local Ambassador

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

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!

3. Search for a existing team

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.

4. Team Invitations

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.

5. Connect with girls in your community

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!

More Tips for Connecting with Teams

When looking for a team through the platform, you can search for teams near you or anywhere in the world!
Different countries have different expectations about how they interact with Mentors they don’t know. Teams may not respond to your request if they aren’t familiar with who you are — and that’s okay.
Mentors are allowed to work with more than one student team. We recommend that new Mentors only work with one team during their first season.
We encourage Mentors to work together! You can indicate if you are open to a co-Mentor in your Match Preferences on the platform.

Find a Co-Mentor

We encourage Mentors to invite a friend or colleague to be a co-Mentor with their team. Students benefit from the support of diverse Mentor perspectives, and you can share the workload with your co-Mentor during the season.

You can also use the “Connect with Mentors” feature on your Mentor Dashboard to find a co-mentor to work with.

Login to your Mentor Dashboard and hover your cursor over your name and profile picture. A menu will appear, and you will select" Collect with Mentors.

You can search for Mentors by location, expertise, and more.

Once you’ve found a Mentor(s) who may be a good fit for your team, you can reach out to them directly at the email address listed on their profile.

In your initial email to a potential co-Mentor, you should:

Introduce yourself and why you’ve decided to be a Mentor
Share where your team is located and how they will meet(in person, hybrid, virtual) and any more details you have established with your team
Share why you think they would be a good co-Mentor with your team

If you don’t hear back from the Mentor, don’t worry. There are a lot of reasons why they might not reply. Try reaching out to another Mentor!