SZTE Alma Mater mentoring program 22/23 spring semester briefing
The SZTE Alma Mater office held a briefing on February 28 regarding the 2022/23 spring semester mentoring program of the University of Szeged.
At the event, new and existing mentors and students were greeted by Dr. Tamás Bene, Director of the International and Public Affairs Directorate of the University of Szeged. Alumni relations coordinator Györgyi Gerháth outlined the mentoring program's goals and achievements, highlighting that the program is already in its 19th cycle (2 cycles per year) and that 268 mentors and 564 students carried out 699 successful mentoring processes since the launch. Next, she shared the most important information about participating in the program.
Following the general information, Erika Seres, Executive Coach, Trainer, and alumni mentor, shared her thoughts on how to create the ideal mentoring cooperation.
In 2020, the coordination and administration of the program moved to the community-building portal of the alumni organization. Their website, www.uniszegedalumni.com, is a bilingual portal in English and Hungarian so that students participating in international programs of SZTE have equal opportunities with Hungarian-speaking students in the search for a mentor.
“A significant number of Hungarian mentors offer mentoring in English too - which is due to the presence of today's multinational organizational forms, but the number of ‘UniSzegedInternational’ users - i.e. current or former international students of SZTE - is also increasing.” Györgyi Gerháth told Szegedify.
She added that in the current cycle, two international students already joined the program, one of them asked a Hungarian mentor who also held the Intercultural Communication workshop for SZTE students, and the other student asked a UN employee from Macedonia.
There are currently 1,450 mentors from 36 countries registered on the site, waiting for students to apply for the mentoring program. The process is flexible and informal, and the mentoring is always based on the needs and possibilities of both parties. As a result, participating students can gain a professional advantage that will make them stand out from the crowd after graduation.
Mentoring cooperations can be started individually at any time, but the staff of SZTE Alma Mater also start a focused program in February and September, connected to the semesters at the university.
To use the mentoring function of the website, first, you need to register on www.uniszegedalumni.com and check the options "I offer mentoring" (for mentors) or "I seek mentoring" (for mentees) and you can already browse users open to mentoring. To join the organized program, ask for help from the program coordinator at almamater@szte.hu. Registration for the 2022/23 spring program is open until March 15.
Featured image: Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
