Mentee Journey 01#
The Beginning of My Journey as a Mentee In the ScholarX program of 2021
Hi Everyone!, I am Vinuri and I'm Really excited to start my own Blog account for the Purpose of sharing The Insights and Guidance I gain During My time In the ScholarX Program I have Joined Recently and I should say, I was Quite surprised I got selected To the Program Because There are so Many Bright Progressive Minds In this Years Program and Many Amazing Mentors Including My Own, and I didn't Feel Like I’d get into the program with so many others applying as well, But I took a chance and Here I am!.
To start of, I actually Came across this Program Through a Google Form One of my Best Friends Sent to me, and as I Went through it, I realized this was not like the mentoring we can expect in a Usual Scenario, But this was a Program and a community made for the Main Purpose of Providing Young Minds with The Opportunity to Connect with Mentoring Figures and Build Sustainable Long Term Relationship Through Monthly or Bi-weekly Meetings, along with a group of Like-minded Individuals who have been assigned to each mentor for a period of Six Months that has been set aside for the purpose of Creating Connections with your team mates and your mentor and also holding sessions with your Mentors at their convenience to gather Information and experience you would need for your journey Forward Be it, into Higher Studies, or Entrepreneurial Ventures or Even into a Preferred Industry where you see your self Working and Climbing the corporate Ladders. To Facilitate the Wide array of Possibilities that students have after their Studies, a Diverse group of Capable and Established Individuals Are There in the Program as Mentors and when you first submit your Information for application Purposes through the aforementioned google form, you are allowed to select your top three preferences for mentors you would like to work and collaborate with from an extensive list of Mentors the Program provides along with their general information and LinkedIn Accounts Links you can access to see if they are the Right Match For You.
So In my Case, I Selected My Top Three Choices for Mentors Id Like to work with and provided my General Information Such as Contact details, Information about my degree, my social media account links and email, my future aspirations and goals and submitted it with hope for best. And then about roughly a month and few days later I get the confirmation email saying that I made it into the program! and I was more than eager and pumped up to embark on my journey. After that in about two weeks I received the email invitation to the Introductory session which was like an Orientation and we were made aware about the Guidelines we have to follow when interacting with our mentors such being respectful of their time seeing as they are busy with prior engagements and most of them have their Own Projects, work and research they carry out while engaging with us therefore we have to be respectful of that and mindful when scheduling meetings and sending queries or setting up discussions.
So In my journey as a mentee the Mentor I got the Privilege of Working with is Ms. Ruwini Cooray, Who Is Visionary and a Self-Initiative STEM Leader and a Researcher in Genetics and Molecular Biochemistry of Neurodegenerative disorders, Working as a PhD Student at Deakin University, Australia. She is also the Lead researcher In the Area of Genetics In the Section of Genetics, in the Institute of Research and Development. As I Look Through Her LinkedIn Profile and read through Some of her articles, I Knew Right away that she was a good Choice for me to get a wide Exposure To a Field that I wasn't familiar with, but still, as the Lifelong learner in Me came to life Reading about her and her work and her commitment and dedication to the purpose she believed in, I knew I would Like to have the same Impact on My community as She has, I was Game enough to dive right in and learn whatever she had to offer for me and make maximum use of my time with her and the team of like-minded bright individuals from many fields such as Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Biochemistry from whom I can learn from and also discuss possibilities for us to explore in the research world In These areas and Maybe even tell a Thing or Two of what I know that could Enlighten them as well.
After we Received The Initial Email From Our Mentors Briefing us about herself and what the Program with us would entail (How we would have Monthly Meetings on Zoom at Pre-scheduled dates Etc.), and Collected Our Information such as email, Subject areas Interested In, Future Goals For Research Etc. After wards We were sent a Separate Email with Details For Our Slack Invitation To join the Channel she has Set up for us Connect with her and Exchange messages, Ideas, and In general Discuss with The fellow Colleagues, I set Up My slack App on My Phone (Its Compatible with iPhone and Android) and afterwards we were sent a Scheduled Meeting Time, Date and a Online Zoom Link to Attend our First meeting with our Mentor. During Our First Meeting which went On for about an Hour and a few Minutes we First Introduced Ourselves and After the Initial Awkwardness I had in me, I began to relax around this amazing Group of Individuals, All in all the First session went well, and we set up how we would discuss about certain areas each month during our monthly meetings based on our expectation of her as we mentioned in the data sheet she provided for us to fill, such as her Insights on: How we Can Apply Abroad for Higher Studies, Details about the application Process, How to select Good Universities and How To best prepare ourselves and etc. Along with it, we decided as a team to explore the possibility of doing a project together by putting our heads together and brainstorming, reading up and referencing research articles on fields of Our choice such as Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, and In my case Food science and Technology, Food Biochemistry etc. also including up coming research areas with certain cutting edge technology that is making a difference in the world by providing possibilities, solutions and methodology to questions scientists are exploring. So this venture was a Whole other level for me and It Was beyond Thrilling for me to be a Part of this Journey and To see what the end result we come up with is like at the end of our program time is just cool.
Our Next meeting Is scheduled to Happen Soon and Ms. Ruwini is Looking into the Possibility of Increasing Our exposure to the work she is Engaged In so, Exciting Stuff are yet to come! So stay tuned for my Next Update Which should be Up within the next 2–3 weeks Depending on the next meeting and the headway we make with the project, and Thank you so much for everyone who stuck it out with me reading this really lengthy, but hopefully very Informative and Insightful Article, because if I was able to convince at least one or two others to join this program next year onwards then i have successfully achieved my goal of passing down my experience to enlighten another person who needs it. Thank you very much and keep a look out for the next update!.
Signing Out! Vinuri Arambepola.
