MENTORSHIP

Mentoring Future Leaders

At She Shares, we believe strongly in nurturing the next generation of women leaders. That is why She Shares is also a mentoring and networking opportunity for young women. She Shares highly values our mentorship program as a way to cultivate successful and meaningful professional experiences for the next generation.


This year long mentorship program pairs young women with professional Sacramento women at the top of their careers. Or, if you are not located in Sacramento, we do have virtual pairings, so you can be located anywhere.

 

Throughout the year, pairs meet at each She Shares event and arrange for additional in person networking opportunities like lunches, attending conferences together, or asking for help with reviewing your resume. In 2020, we started virtual workshops which has provided more opportunities for professional development workshops for our mentees and mentors. We have continued these virtual workshops even though our main events are back to being in person. Topics include Zoom etiquette, taking the next step in your career, how to negotiate your salary at a new job, and networking 101. It is not required to attend all of these events, but we ask that you do your best to attend as many as you can and are relevant to you!

 

Mentees and mentors can arrange their meet ups as they are comfortable with. Most will do Zoom or coffee meetings to get to know each other and go from there.

FAQs

  • What are the qualifications for a mentor?

    Mentors are women that are further along in their career, approximately 7+ years of experience, although it does not have to be at the same job that whole time. They should be able to offer mentorship and advice to women just starting out in their career and be able to meet virtually or in person at least five times during the year with their pair.

  • What are the qualifications for a mentee?

    Mentees are women that are newer in their career, usually just starting out, approximately in the first 5 or so years of their career. Although if there has been a major career change or a delay in starting the work force due to life circumstances, we still welcome you to apply and explain that. We ask that our mentees be graduated from college – but they can be enrolled in law school, business school or similar programs.   

  • Is there an age requirement?

    There is no age requirement, but usually our mentees end up being in their 20’s and our mentors are in their 30’s on up to their 60’s. If you had a late start to your career and worry you are “too old” for the program, reach out anyways and we can see if you are a good fit.

  • Is there a fee to participate?

    No, the program is completely free to participants. In fact, when we get back to having our in person events, all mentors and mentees will be able to attend complimentary as part of our program. 

  • How does the matching process work?

    We will typically match you with someone in a similar career field – or in the career field you are interested in that you described on your resume. For example, we once paired a law school student with a local Judge! If there is a particular type of career that you would like to be paired with, please let us know on the application. For example, if you are currently working for a legislator, but you would really like to become a lobbyist, we can try to pair you with a lobbyist.

  • Do you have to be located in Sacramento in order to participate?

    You do not! The only disadvantage to not being in Sacramento is it would be harder to attend in-person events, but you would still be welcome. We host practical workshops on Zoom throughout the year as well. 

  • How often do you have to engage with your mentor/mentee pair?

    We encourage each pair to work out what works best for them, but we do suggest that you meet (virtually or in person) at least five times throughout the year. You will really get out of it what you put into it.

  • How long is the program?

    You will officially be in the program for the entire calendar year. But after the program, many of our pairs stay in touch and continue their relationship for years. You will also be on our mailing list moving forward so you can join our events in the future. We always offer our alumna mentees a discount for our in person events too.

Mentorship Testimonials

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I have learned valuable concepts in the She Shares program. It was a great platform to know more about government through the workshops and conversations, and of course pairing me with my mentor. Teresa Stark, my mentor, talked to me about the capitol fellowship programs, she gave me advice, she shared with me how she started her career and how she became successful, she gave me the opportunity to shadow her, she invited me to assist to a presentation of the Finance Department, and she took me to a hearing at the capitol. All these types of experiences helped me to become more interested in the public service and government. I also enjoy going to all those conversations to see successful and role model women. I hope I can become a mentor of She Shares in a future as well to inspire young women.


– Claudia Espinoza, She Shares Mentee

“Before coming to the She Shares Workshop I was not sure which career field I was most interested in. When I attended the workshop, I hoped one of the speakers would somehow convince me that their career was best for me. Once I attended the workshop it was totally different from what I expected. Instead, I learned and obtained valuable advice given from guest speakers and will use it to my advantage such as having self-confidence and good communication skills. This was such an amazing workshop and I hope it could reach out to more women throughout all ages and classes because there was a lot of great advice that could potentially change someone's life and or career path.  This experience was valuable to me because I never had a mentor or someone who shared their success story with me, so I am very pleased to attend this workshop and connect with such influential women. Something that I will never forget from this workshop is 'networking'. Networking is so important and I am gradually learning how to network with people on LinkedIn and other social networks. I had such an amazing time at the workshop and hope this kind of opportunity is presented in the future.”


– Panhoia Lee, She Shares Mentee

“I've really enjoyed getting to know my mentee and becoming involved in her career development.  She has a lot to offer the community and professionally is already achieving at a very high level for someone her age.  It's also been rewarding to get to know some of the other mentees and I've had the opportunity to meet with many of them one on one as well as discuss career and other objectives with them.  Spending time with the other mentors, especially socially, has been an added benefit.  I find the sense of community in She Shares so rewarding and feel very fortunate to be a part of it.   This program has really helped keep purpose foremost in my professional life and that is a reward beyond measure.”


- Kelly Boyd, She Shares Mentor

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