FS Mentoring Programme 2024

Take a new look at your professional life – become a Frankfurt School mentor!

Yes, it’s that time again – another opportunity to take part in the FS Mentoring Programme as it lifts off in 2024. This special, 12-month programme brings alumni with at least five years of professional experience together with Bachelor or Management Studies students and FS scholarship holders in mentor-student pairings. For one year, you help a student with their personal development and career choices; at the same time, you gain valuable insights into the latest management teaching methods used at Frankfurt School.

How does participating in the FS Mentoring Programme benefit you professionally?

• As a mentor, giving advice to a student mentee also gives you an opportunity to look at your own development from new perspectives – a chance to reflect on the things you’ve done in your career and the personal choices you’ve made in your life.
• As part of the programme, we give you exclusive, free access to the FS Community network.
• During the programme, you benefit from online training courses in mentoring and other specialist topics. At the beginning of the programme at the end of April, you’re invited to take part in a kick-off workshop entitled “As a mentor, who am I and what’s my role?”

How does your student mentee benefit from your mentoring?

• As a mentor, you act as your mentee’s primary contact for discussing a variety of life and career-related issues over a 12-month period (four months in the case of Management Studies students).
• As a mentor, you help your mentee to develop personally and find his or her feet professionally by directly sharing your own thoughts and experiences.

What is the programme not about?

• The Mentoring Programme is not about arranging jobs or internships. If your mentoring helps your mentee to develop new perspectives or make new contacts, that’s an additional bonus.

What commitments do mentors and students make when they pair?

• Student-mentor relationships are based on confidentiality and “give and take”. Both sides engage with each other by finding time to share experiences and discuss ideas.
• To build up trust, student-mentor pairings should organise at least four meetings in the course of the year, either in person or – in view of the COVID pandemic – in virtual chats or videoconferences.
• Between these organised meetings, it’s also a good idea to stay in informal contact with each other by e-mail, telephone and so on.

Do you have the time or inclination to mentor a Frankfurt School student (again)? If you do, we’d be very grateful if you could complete this short survey by 8 March 2024 so we can find a suitable mentee for you.

The programme kicks off in end of April 2024 – we’ll sent out invitations to pairings as appropriate. Our kick-off evenings happen in early April – the exact date will depend on the degree programme for which you’ll be acting as a mentor. The following dates have already been scheduled:

23 March 2024 at 18:00 CET – Kick-off for Bachelor of Arts student-mentor pairings

23 March 2024 at 19:00 CET – Kick-off for Bachelor of Science student-mentor pairings

25 March 2024 at 18:00 CET – Kick-off for Management Programme student-mentor pairings

25 March 2024 at 19:00 CET – Kick-off for scholarship holder-mentor pairings

We’re very sorry to say that we won’t be able to offer any kick-off evenings as in-person events this year. Should anything change in the coronavirus situation, however, we will certainly let you know.

If you’d like to know more about the programme or are still uncertain about whether to apply as a mentor, we warmly invite you to attend a short Briefing Evening at 19:00 on Tuesday, 13 and 15 February 2024.

Please let us know if you’d like to attend by sending an e-mail to: mentoring@fs.de.

For photos of and quotes by student-mentor pairings who took part in previous FS Mentoring Programmes, see here.

We look forward to welcoming you to this year’s Mentoring Programme!