OxCAN-OCS Mentorship Programme
Oxford Climate Alumni Network (OxCAN) is collaborating with Oxford Climate Society (OCS) to provide mentoring opportunities to students at the University of Oxford, pairing them with professionals across the climate sector.
Objectives
OxCAN and OCS are collaborating to provide mentoring opportunities to students at Oxford, pairing them with professionals in the climate sector. We aim to create a mentorship scheme that both mentors and mentees will find enriching for their aspirations in environment and climate professions. This will serve as a complementary programme to the flagship mentorship scheme offered by the Oxford Society for International Development (OxSID); indeed, if OxSID receives particularly climate-focused applicants, potential mentors may be suggested from this OxCAN-OCS scheme too.
Eligibility Criteria for Mentors
OxCAN is looking for mentors who have either gone on to study climate/sustainability/environment degrees at a higher level (whether a master's or a doctorate) or those currently working in a climate-adjacent field. We’re happy to accept mentors across a huge range of disciplines and at various career levels, including those who may have only recently made a shift into climate-related work. The objective is to help the Oxford students we work with get a better sense of career opportunities available in the climate sphere and a better understanding of what these career paths may look like. Anyone who works within a climate/sustainability field would be brilliant.
If a mentor is open to taking on more than one mentee, this should be indicated to us as soon as possible. Once the mentors have been selected by OxCAN, OCS will request a brief bio about each mentor in order to best pair them with mentees.
Mentors must be University of Oxford graduates and OxCAN members. If you are not yet an OxCAN member, you can register here.
Mentoring Process and Expectations
We ask mentors to commit to three sessions, ideally of an hour each, with the mentees. These may be online/telephone or in-person, whichever suits the mentor/mentees best. These calls would ideally take place between 18th November and 8th December 2024. The calls should cover career advancement/climate opportunities/reflections by the mentors on their own careers and could potentially branch into advice on applications for jobs and further study/work placement or networking opportunities. OCS will circulate a PDF booklet to the mentors and mentees with a rough structure of topics for discussion in each of the three sessions. It is up to the mentor/mentee pair how closely they would like to follow this structure.
Suggested dates for mentor-mentee meetings:
Week of 18th November 2024: first mentorship meeting.
Week of 25th November 2024: second mentorship meeting.
Week of 2nd December 2024: third mentorship meeting.
Expectations and Deliverables for Mentors
The expectation will be that mentors respond promptly, wherever possible, to the introduction email from their mentee/mentees and organise the three sessions within the outlined timeframe. If mentors are no longer able to take part in the process, OxCAN/OCS should be informed before the start of the pairing, ideally by November 15th at the latest. If mentors are unable to commit to the sessions once the mentorship has begun, they should look to rearrange the sessions at a later date, potentially during December, wherever possible. After the end of the mentorship scheme, we will circulate a feedback form to the mentors. Mentors will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the process to OxCAN/OCS and to indicate whether they would be willing to take part in the programme again.
Expressions of Interest
If you would be interested in mentoring an Oxford student participating in the programme, please complete this form by end-of-day on Wednesday 6th November 2024.
If you have any queries, please address them to Gautaam Borah, OxCAN's Director of Global Networks, at globalnetworks@oxfordclimatealumni.com, or to Dr Andrew Lee, OxCAN's Director of Communications, at comms@oxfordclimatealumni.com.
If you are an Oxford student who would like to be a mentee, please get in touch with the Oxford Climate Society.