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Introduction

Since April 2021, the German-Syrian Research Foundation (DSFG e. V.) has offered its Academic Mentoring Program to support students and researchers striving to continue their academic journey in Europe. The program connects students with mentors who have already walked this academic path and are eager to help others overcome challenges such as language, bureaucracy, and cultural adjustment.
At its core, the program is driven by solidarity and shared ambition. Our mentors generously contribute their experience so that every aspiring academic has the chance to move forward with confidence, purpose, and a strong community beside them.

Mentroing Team:

Management team: 7 volunteers
Mentors: 56 volunteer mentors
Report date: 07.02.2024
Prepared by: Dr. Yamen AlSalka (Manager of mentoring team)

Mentorship cases:

From 01/01/2024 to 31/12/2024, 90 mentees have applied for our program. With the help of our mentors, 44 mentees have successfully completed their mentoring process and 15 mentees are still being mentored. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of mentors in some areas, we were unable to offer mentoring to 20 mentees.

General mentoring sessions

The mentoring team organized two general sessions for 8 mentees. During each session, a mentor provided general information and mentoring to those mentees who had some general questions or those who could not find a suitable mentor for their situation.

Hilde-Domin scholars

The mentoring team organizThe mentoring team, with the help of the mentors in the mentoring program, provided various one-to-one mentoring sessions for the students who were accepted in the Hilde Domin Scholarship for Students at Risk from the DAAD. The aim of the mentoring was to help the students to gain admission to German universities. In total, 9 scholars got their mentorship for the first round in February 2024 and 5 scholars got their mentorship for the second round in November 2024.ed two general sessions for 8 mentees. During each session, a mentor provided general information and mentoring to those mentees who had some general questions or those who could not find a suitable mentor for their situation.

Data from the completed cases:

The successfully completed cases mainly involved mentees from pharmaceutical & medical fields and engineering fields (30 % each). The majority of mentees (approx. 73 %) have applied to our program for mentoring in order to apply for a Master’s degree in Germany. Of these mentees, approximately 43% were women helped by DSFG mentoring program.