Class of 2023

This year, of a total of 35 mentees, the Class consists of 25 new mentees, and 10 mentees who asked to continue their mentorship for one more year.

The planned smaller size of this Class would have allowed us to start a mentoring program in Spanish later in the year, directed to young professionals and students from 19 Latin American countries, Spain, and Latinx mentees in the United States. This initiative was deferred until 2024 for logistical and technical reasons.

 
 

Gender

In 2023, female mentors represented 41% of all mentors. Among mentees, the Class of 2023 consisted of 24% men, and 76% women. This gender disparity between male and female mentees cannot be explained only by the preponderance of young women in the fields of health and human development. At MultiPOD, the vast majority of applications rejected since 2017 have been submitted by male candidates. It would be necessary to determine why these gender differences persist and which factors may account for these differences. (Take this, young men!).

Geographic distribution

In 2023, our 67 participants (mentors and mentees) were born or are currently residing in 45 different countries:

  • Central and West Africa: Benin, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Rwanda, Togo, Mali

  • East and South Africa:  Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Madagascar, Ethiopia

  • North Africa: Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco

  • Middle East: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Oman

  • North America: Canada, Mexico, United States

  • Central America: Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama

  • South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru

  • English, French, and Dutch Caribbean: Haiti, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada

  • Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland

  • Northern Europe: Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Lithuania

  • Southern Europe: Croatia, Italy, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria

  • Eastern Europe and Caucasus: Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Romania

  • Central Asia:  Afghanistan, Belarus

  • South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka

  • Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines

  • East Asia: China, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Mongolia

  • Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

Academic and Professional Background

As in previous years, more than 70% of our Mentors came from the area of health. Among the 6 Mentees tent are physicians and medical students and the remaining 29 young women and men have been trained in more than 20 disciplines, to which the following areas have been added:

Gynecology, Public Policy, Aging, Journalism, and Film-making.

Languages

32% of our Mentees are bilingual and 41% are fluent in three or more languages. Although English is our working language, MultiPOD Mentoring's Mentees and Mentors speak 70(+) languages. These include the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), and this year, we added native speakers of Mooré, Slovak, and Twi.

Evaluation of the first six years (2017-2022) of MultiPOD Mentoring

The main purpose of MultiPOD is to speed up and advance the professional careers of mentees in seven or more sessions during the nine months of the program. Most young professionals and

students in the program are trying to define their professional pathway, find opportunities to work or study, or publish a scientific article or thesis. During this process and through interaction with their mentors, they also acquire new knowledge and skills and develop both professionally and personally.

Success of the Mentoring Program

At MultiPOD, we consider that the mentoring program has been successful when a minimum of 70% of our mentees in each Class advance towards their desired goal(s) from one stage to the next.

Percentage of Mentees that Advanced Towards Their Desired Goal(s)

As shown above, the threshold of “success” was surpassed in each of the six years under evaluation. Although the responses of mentees and mentors could not be matched for concordance, it is interesting to note that in all but one year, a higher percentage of mentors than mentees considered that the latter had advanced farther towards their goals.

In addition, we found out that there was a statistically significant difference (p< .01) between 7 and more sessions and 6 and less sessions (87% versus 66%, respectively) regarding both the total of mentee goals and the years of the mentorship. The mentees’ individual goals in which the number of sessions made a significant difference (p< .01) coincided with the main reasons why mentees join MultiPOD, i.e., to define their career pathway and to find a rewarding job.

As could be expected, the number of sessions was also strongly related (p< .01) with a gain in skills and knowledge, and especially, with an increase in self-confidence, categories not disaggregated here but included in the “other” category of goals. It also seems that in 2020 and 2021, the number of sessions might have been affected by the perception of their quality, as mentioned earlier, and perhaps the Covid-19 pandemic.

Conclusions

This brief and yet to be completed analysis of our experience in mentoring international students and young professionals from all over the world in the last six years (2017-2022) has already led us to the following preliminary conclusions:

  1. MultiPOD Mentoring works and is fulfilling its mission and purpose.

  2. Participants (both mentors and mentees) give high marks to the usefulness and effectiveness of the program.

  3. The rapid advancement of our mentees towards their career goals in only nine months and 7+ mentoring sessions has surpassed everybody’s expectations.

  4. MultiPOD’s methodology and approach to mentoring seems to be validated by our consistently positive results in the last six years.

  5. We are still learning.

List of Mentors and Mentees

List of mentees and mentors (and countries of birth) participating in the Class of 2022.

Continuing Mentees

  • Oumar Dao, Mali

  • Cynthia Lourenço Tach, Brazil

  • Monika Brovč, Slovenia

  • Aysha Akhtar, Canada

  • Wealth Okete, Nigeria

  • Dhwani Babla, Oman

  • Zoe Nylund, United States

  • Aljaž Brlek, Slovenia

  • Marwa Saleh, Egypt

  • Maxime Mistretta, France

New Mentees

  • Abdalrhman Abdalmajid alnaji ahmed, Sudan

  • Aliza Benitez, United States

  • Amina Fadzha Abam, Philippines

  • Andrej Kmeťko, Slovakia

  • Anu Rumm, Estonia

  • ATUNDE Ahmed Olarewaju, Nigeria

  • Betelhiem Abebe Gebreselassie, Ethiopia

  • Bhima Thapa, India

  • Chisom Ochonma, Nigeria

  • Duaa Kambal, Sudan

  • Frieda Haselbach, Germany

  • Giulia Ensing, the Netherlands

  • Golnaz Ezati, Iran

  • Julio Paredes, Peru

  • KOUMBEM Aristide Marie Arsène, Burkina Faso

  • Luisa Rothe, Germany

  • Luiza Bocai, Romania

  • Magdalena Georgieva, Bulgaria

  • Percem Kahraman, Austria

  • Poojaasree Balamurugan, India

  • Samantha Genova, United States

  • Samreen Nawshin, Bangladesh

  • Sandrina Koppitz, Germany

  • Stefania Wachowicz, Argentina

  • Zoë Schott, United States

Mentors  

  • Ronald Mora-Castillo, Costa Rica

  • Gustavo Marin, Argentina

  • Barbara Jauregui, Argentina

  • Trupti Desai, India

  • Firdosi Mehta, India

  • Fernando Zacarías, Mexico

  • Hernan Rosenberg, Chile

  • James Hospedales, Trinidad and Tobago

  • Carlene Radix, Grenada

  • Julia Valderrama, Spain

  • Christian Darras, DR Congo

  • Ugné Grigaité, Lithuania

  • Pia Vracko, Slovenia

  • Arletty Pinel, Panama

  • Olaf Kelm, Germany

  • Cesar Gattini, Chile

  • Rafael Mazin, Mexico

  • Juan Manuel Sotelo, Peru

  • Molly Fitzgerald, United States

  • Steve Corber, Canada

  • Gopukrishnan Pillai, India

  • Mahdi Abdelwahab, Egypt

  • Jeremy Collymore, Barbados

  • Jose Romero-Keith, Mexico

  • Erma Manoncourt, France

  • Marilyn Rice, United States

  • Jean-Luc Poncelet, Belgium

  • Mariela Contreras, Honduras

  • Sadime Basak Kisi Kaki, Turkey

  • Davia Ellis, Jamaica

  • Adam Ehm, Australia

  • Bayarkhuu Chinzorigt (Mongolia

  • Eleanor Brtva, United States

Mentor Advisors

  • Stanley Blanco, Bolivia

  • Ruben F. del Prado, Suriname

  • Ricardo Mexia, Portugal

  • Jai Prakash Narain, India

  • Marc Steben, Canada

  • Maka Tsulukidze, Georgia

  • Antonio Gerbase, Brazil

  • Giorgi Pkhakadze, Georgia

  • Elza Jgerenaia, Georgia

  • Veronica Foubert, Mexico

Mentor Advisors are available for specific consultations in their areas of expertise, institutional affiliation, geographic location, etc.

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