Report date: 07.02.2024
Prepared by: Dr. Yamen AlSalka (Manager of mentoring team)
1- Introduction:
Beginning of April 2021, the German-Syrian Research Society (Deutsch-Syrische Forschungsgesellschaft e. V.) has launched its mentoring program. The DSFG e. V. was established its mentoring program to bridge the need of networks between immigrant academics and their counterparts in Germany who were able to build life or career here, and to help the newcomers to overcome the obstacles like language, bureaucracy, integration, and culture to be able to pursue their education and dreams here in Europe.
The mentoring program aims to help Arabic students, scholars, and scientists to start their academic life in Germany. We as Arabic scholars and scientists in Germany have the moral obligation to act and be to help each other.
2- Mentroing Team:
Management team: 7 volunteers
Mentors: 56 volunteer mentors
3- 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.
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4- 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.
5- Hilde-Domin scholars
The 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.
6- 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.
