Abstract:

This current year started very differently for all of mankind. We are living in a Coronavirus pandemic, and everyone is trying to deal with this situation as best as possible. The scenario of closed schools and enforced social distancing has required a different type of support. Also, from our point of view, we had doubts about whether a virtual mentoring program could work during a Pandemic. We as the others had more questions than answers but even so, we decided to ‘face the situation’ and in response to COVID-19, our team moved quickly to start the virtual mentoring. The mentoring consisted basically of the following two topics: 1. self-knowledge and 2. profession guides. This work describes the experience of this activity that included low-income students girls aged between 13-15 years old. In our Institute, there are some social programs and one of them know as Casdinho includes low-income students, (girls and boys) aged between 13-15 years old. As there are more applicants than vacancies, a selection process is necessary. The girls participating in this program were our target group. In the end, there were 20 inscriptions for Virtual Mentoring. Three main objectives were defined to provide to them: (i) Develop communication skills and self-knowledge; (ii) Increase confidence and self-esteem; (iii) Receive support and guidance to choose a career. The virtual mentoring activity was developed for 31 weeks from the planning until the application. It was possible to observe like a presential activity the different phases of a relationship between Mentor-Mentee such as STAGE 1 and 2: Negotiating Expectations and Goals; STAGE 3: Establishing the Relationship; STAGE 4: Closure.

Keywords:

Mentoring, STEM, education, self-knowledge.