Lend a Hand and Let's Grow Together

Dear Donor Friend,

As we concluded the 11^th year of our project, we are proud to announce that since 2012 we have reached 3750 menti- mentor pairings and increased the number of participating CYDD branches to 60.

In 2012 the project started with only 6 CYDD branches and 20 menti-mentor pairs, gradually increasing both to 60 branches and 763 menti-mentor pairs this year. The volunteers working in the project also increase every year and this year we had about 1600 volunteers including project coordinators of the branches, volunteers to give training to the mentors and the menti separately and those that give various online educational trainings and workshops to mentis.

To give you more statistics: this year’s ratio of female to male students was 66% to 34%. The percentage of juniors is 42%, seniors 49% and only 9% are second grade university students; this shows us that students feel the need of mentoring and guidance as they get closer to graduation and to planning their careers.

Our annual project report in Turkish is attached.

Thank you for supporting our program..

Kind regards,

• Year end report in Turkish (PDF)
  

Dear Donor,

After our mentor and mentii pairs formed and started their monthly meetings, we focused on supervision and evaluation meetings with our mentors.

During the first on-line meeting in January GROW model of coaching and mentoring was explained and two workshop sessions were held with the participation of 133 mentors. Later in January two sessions of evaluation meetings were also held.

Following the Feb 6 earthquake which affected 11 cities and many students taking part in the mentorship project. We started a series of pyschosocial support meetings for our mentors and mentiis. The first meeting is on March 15th and conscious and unconscious effects of the disaster, common reactions people have after traumatic situations and when psycological support will be needed will be subjects discussed with coach Kerem Erkman.

In January mentiis also joined 4 online sessions on Technology and Innovation seminars organized by Women in Technolgy (WTech) and Türk Traktör.

Another event aimed to increase the number females working in technical jobs was  for STEM students . 100 CYDD students took part in the innovation competition organized by General Electricand shared their ideas on the “ Future of Aviation”.

Kind regards,

Dear donor,

In order to reveal the impact of the Mentoring Project, an impact analysis study was conducted in the 10th year of the Project. In this context, the mentees participating in the Mentoring Project and other scholarship students of CYDD who are not participants of the Project were compared in terms of behaviors, abilities and self-concept.

. Mentees participating in the Mentoring Project seem to be more interested in their own careers and more skilled in collecting information to achieve their career goals.

. In the study, it was revealed that the Project had positive effects on the career adaptability of the mentees.

. Mentees have statistically significant high self-efficacy in fulfilling career planning and problem solving tasks.

In 2022-2023 school year we are aiming 1000 pairings but we already have 1200 mentee and 300 new mentor applications. Our mentor pool is increasing every year with new applications.

We have started our mentor trainings and mentee trainings will follow soon after.Below is a short summary of the past 10 years of the Project.

Thank you for the support you have been giving to our Project..

Dear donor,

As we start the second decade of our project, this year we aim to reach 1000-1200 mentor-menti pairs from all CYDD branches that give university scholarships.

An important decision taken this year is to have as many as possible mentors from among CYDD alumni. The prerequisite for being a mentor is a work experience of minimum 3 years and priority will be given to CYDD graduates who have been in the workplace for at least three years. We hope to have some young mentors who previously were menti students in the first years of the same project.

Another breakthrough in the project is the implementation of an impact analysis study. During the first ten years of the project, internal assessments and evaluations were regularly made with questionnaires sent to both menti students and their mentors. At the end of our tenth year we have started a more thorough impact analysis study in collaboration with Ms Kizbu who is the Director of Independent Evaluation Laboratory at Koç University Istanbul. The results of this first survey will be available by mid August and we hope to share it with you in our next report.

We thank you for supporting our project and look forward to your donations.

Kindly yours,

Links:

• Project website (in turkish)
• project description (in Turkish)
• Project guide (in Turkish)

Dear donor,

Starting in January, several seminars and “Awareness meetings among mentis” were organized by CYDD Project team

Journalist-writer Demet Cengiz was the guest of our first meeting in February. Our guest talked about her journalism, writing and forestry careers and about what she learned from important people she met as a journalist.

The second meeting held in March was about “Mentoring in the Digital World”. Our guest was EMCC Turkey (European Guidance and Coaching Association) Social Responsibility Projects team leader and Google certified mentor Banu Aykn Köylüer.

A special 8 week program “First Step to My Career” was designed for 3^rd and 4^th grade mentiis and volunteers from GE Turkey Women’s Network team are giving the seminars. Subjects are Inspiring Women-Guest speaker, Effective CV Creation, Developing Interview Skills, Motivation, Working OutLoud (WOL) workshop, Personal Branding, Networking.

Various CYDD branches taking part in mentorship project are also organizing educational seminars for the students of their branch:

Mersin CYDD : Job Search skills training

Ankara CYDD: Career planning and CV preparation

Eskisehir CYDD : Time management training

Merter CYDD: Career days talks “ effective communication” “interview techniques” “speeches to listen” “first step in the career path- an effective CV”

Seminars will be continued in April and May and you can read about them in our next report.

Thank you for supporting our university students with your donations.

Kind regards,