On November 5, APRU launched the 2nd Cohort at the virtual orientation for the 2nd cohort of the APWiL Mentoring program, representing the first opportunity for the cohort’s participants to come together as a group.
The APWiL Mentoring Program 2nd Cohort will run until October 2022, involving 92 participants from 26 institutions, which represents a major upscaling from the pilot program 2020-2021, which recorded 30 participants from 10 institutions.
The introduction to the 2nd Cohort Orientation was delivered by Sabrina Lin, APWiL Co-Chair and Senior Advisor the President at HKUST; she was very pleased to note that over 90 attendees were recorded. “This reflects the popularity of the APWiL Mentoring program and will surely lead to good interactions in the opening remarks as well as in the breakout rooms,” Lin said.
“APRU is viewed by many university presidents around the world as being one of the most serious and also most impactful networks, and so I think that you are really in for a thrill to be part of not only APRU but also APWiL Mentoring Program,” said Santa Ono, President of The University of British Columbia and APWiL Mentoring Program’s Presidential Champion, in his welcoming remarks.
“There are too many men that are always nominating each other for awards, and it is about time that we nominate women, not only for the awards, but also for positions within professorships or as department chairs or university provosts,” he added.
Program Manager Chelsey Hawes, Program Coordinator Kimberly Bellows (both University of California, Davis), and Anya Wong (APRU Secretariat) provided a program overview including the program design and expected outcomes. Additionally, the program just launched APWiLMentoring.org which offers a members-only site for mentors and mentees to further engage in conversation and exchange between all participants and alumni.
The APWiL Mentoring Program provides international and intercultural opportunities for the empowerment, professional growth, and development of aspiring women leaders within APRU. It was created against the backdrop of the APRU 2019 Gender Gap Report ringing alarm bells on the lack of improvement in the previous years. Other studies have since shown that the current challenges relating to COVID-19 have been exasperating the divide even further.
The 2nd Cohort Orientation concluded with an announcement on the next APWiL Mentoring Program event; on Dec 7- 8, the cohort’s 1st workshop under the theme Women’s Representation in Higher Education in the Pacific Rim Seminar will feature panelists from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Mexico. The 2nd and 3rd workshops will focus on the topics Leadership and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion respectively.
“We never thought this program would be growing so fast and bring together so many wonderful participants both on the mentor and mentee side,” said APWiL Co-Chair Joanna Regulska, Vice Provost and Dean – Global Affairs at the University of California, Davis.
“We saw in the pilot program that when mentors and mentees spend some time together to talk and think, amazing things are coming out, including ideas for new research projects,” she added.
Click here to view more information about APWiL Mentoring Program 2nd Cohort.