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AABEA-NT Membership Program
The
American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects was
formed to serve the needs of this group of professionals. The AABEA-NT
Vision is to advance the community, the standing and the agenda of
American Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects by carrying out
initiatives that benefit us in our homeland North America and tat
also benefits our ancestral land Bangladesh.
The
latest program that AABEA-NT is introducing towards realizing this
vision is the AABEA-NT mentorship program. The objective of this
program
is
to enable a mentoring community within AABEA-NT where junior members
of the organization are guided in their professional lives by more
seasoned and experienced community members. This program has been
modeled after the Entrepreneurship mentoring program run by the MIT
Alumni Club.
Critical Success Factors
1.
Attracting and retaining a diverse population of experienced
mentors.
2.
Attracting a population of mentees.
3.
Facilitating the successful search for and engagement of appropriate
mentors by mentees.
Challenges
Building a successful and long lasting mentoring community requires
an
ongoing effort in communicating and promoting the value of
mentoring. Since
mentors are volunteers, it will also be important to document
mentoring success
stories in order to "reward" mentors for their efforts.
Our
Infrastructure
AABEA-NT Chapter in conjunction with AABEA Central Commit-
tee has built a web-based application to facilitate the successful
matching of
mentor and mentee. We are sensitive to the busy schedules of our
senior members,
and so AABEA Executives will personally match each mentor with one
or more
mentee. Mentees will be asked to fill in information about what kind
of guidance
they are looking for. Information submitted to help the matching
process will
remain confidential. Mentors will be able to see potential mentees
and notify us of
their preferences. The expectations of the mentorship will start out
low - involving
email-based correspondence, complemented with a monthly lunch
meeting.
Conclusion
Mentoring is a time-honored way of transferring knowledge and
experience
from those who have attained it to those who would benefit from it.
The biggest
challenge has always been to connect mentor and mentee in a way that
maximizes the benefits to both. The AABEA framework and the powerful
networking potential of the internet give us an opportunity to build
a vibrant
mentoring community and bring significant incremental value to AABEA-NT
members. For junior members of the community, we invite you to
register on the AABEA web page (www.aabea.org).
For senior members of the community, our invitation is to give back
by mentoring younger Bangladeshi Engineers/Architects.
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