The Bahçeşehir University Women Students Mentorship Program is designed to connect women students with female academics and women working in various industries through a structured mentorship program.
Objective:
Mentorship programs can facilitate women's career development while providing insights and knowledge about organizational cultures at senior management levels. In this regard, Bahçeşehir University's Women Students Mentorship Program aims to support the career goals of women students.
Who Can Be a Mentor and What Are Their Roles:
Women professionals with at least five years of industry experience, female entrepreneurs, and female academics can serve as mentors.
Mentors are expected to provide guidance and insights to their mentees based on their own experiences.
Who Can Be a Mentee:
Women students enrolled at Bahçeşehir University are eligible to apply to the program.
Mentor and Mentee Matching:
Mentors and mentees will be matched based on the answers provided in their application forms. Therefore, the accuracy of the information provided in these forms is critical. A mentee can have only one mentor at a time, while a mentor may have as many mentees as they indicate on their application form.
Duration of Mentorship:
The mentorship program will continue for 14 weeks.
Number of Mentorship Meetings and How It Works:
The program is designed to be flexible, allowing the mentee to achieve their professional development goals while accommodating the busy schedules of both mentors and mentees.
During the program, mentors and their matched mentees are expected to meet at least 4 times or more. A minimum of 4 meetings is required. Each mentor-mentee meeting is expected to last at least 1 hour.
Additionally, regular events will be organized where all participants can come together and gain insights from prominent women leaders. Mentees are expected to participate in these events.
Application System:
Mentee applications will be submitted by completing the necessary forms, which can be obtained from the Bahçeşehir University Student Dean’s Office.
Mentor applications will be managed by the Bahçeşehir University CO-OP unit.
Mentor and mentee matches will be determined by the BAU Student Dean’s Office, Bau Equal Unit, and BAU Social Impact and Responsibility Directorate, with notifications sent to candidates.
Information regarding the matches made based on the evaluations will be communicated to the mentors and mentees by the university. Following the completion of the mentorship program, both the mentor and mentee will be asked to submit a report containing their feedback and evaluations of the process.
|
YEAR |
Number of female student beneficiaries |
|
January 2023- December 2023 |
1807 |
|
January 2022- December 2022 |
1611 |
|
January 2021- December |
1680 |
|
January 2020 December 2020 |
1576 |
CAREER AND LONG-TERM INTERNSHIP PROGRAM FOCUSED ON SUPPORTING WOMEN STUDENTS
The university period is a time when important decisions about the future and career are made. In addition to long-term internship placements, the BAU CO-OP Education Model offers seminars, conferences, mock job interviews, workshops, and career counseling services aimed at helping students discover themselves, prepare for the business world, and develop decision-making skills. These activities enable students to pursue meaningful and fulfilling career paths during their university education.
Within the BAU CO-OP Career Center, the processes of placing students into long-term internship programs are also managed. The COOPER long-term intern selection and placement process is carried out in direct communication with the Human Resources (HR) departments of companies.
The process follows the HR modeling that companies use in their regular hiring procedures (announcement to relevant faculties, receiving applications, CO-OP interviews, and presenting a shortlist of candidates to the company). Students who apply to the job postings published by the CO-OP Directorate are evaluated through CO-OP interviews, and if requested by the company, they are also provided mentorship to prepare for company interviews.
Afterward, the students' CVs are shared with the respective companies. The insurance procedures for the selected candidates are managed by the university under the supervision of the CO-OP team. The HR modeling used in long-term internships serves as a direct simulation of the environment students will encounter when job searching or entering the workforce after graduation.
As part of BAU's policies supporting gender equality, the BAU COOPER program operates under the principle of ensuring that women students benefit from internship opportunities without facing any discrimination. In this regard, efforts are made within the university to ensure the inclusion of female students in the program. The placement rates of female students in internships are tracked and reported on an annual basis.
The table below shows the gender breakdown of students who participated in the BAU Cooper program over the past three years. The participation rate of female students in this program is higher.
|
YEAR |
Total Beneficiary |
Number of female student beneficiaries |
|
January 2023- December 2023 |
1276 |
749 (58.7%) |
|
January 2022- December 2022 |
1030 |
690 (67.0%) |
|
January 2021- December |
1072 |
671 (62.6%) |
|
January 2020 December 2020 |
664 |
338 (50.9%) |
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