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The Washington Statistical Society Mentoring Program

Please join us for the joint WSS/GSS mentoring program.

We are excited to announce that the joint WSS/GSS mentoring program is now recruiting both mentors and mentees for the 2024-2025 term!

Meeting others in our profession can help us quickly learn the ropes, advance our careers, and contribute to the statistical profession. To facilitate engagement and to encourage the transfer of valuable experience among the members of the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and the Government Statistical Section (GSS) of the American Statistical Association, the WSS and GSS teamed up to bring our members this joint mentoring program. (The program is also open to nonmembers, but they will need to join WSS or GSS). Matching mentors and mentees offers a great opportunity for mentees to develop as statisticians, mentors to “give back” to newer members of our profession, and for everyone to stay connected to the WSS and GSS.

What are the benefits of joining the program?

The potential benefits of participating in the program as a mentee are described well by the Do-It-Yourself Mentorship handout from the ASA Committee on Applied Statisticians:

For mentors: (1) A connection with skills and perspectives of recently trained professionals, (2) development and enhancement of communication and leadership skills, and (3) satisfaction of passing on skills and knowledge that can enhance the career and personal growth of the mentee and contribute to the maturity of the profession. The program may answer important questions including: How do you identify and introduce opportunities to others? How do you describe your own experiences to others to encourage them to take more strategic risks? How do you teach others to network effectively? Mentors usually get more from their relationships by learning something along the way about the new challenges of their mentees.

For mentees: 1) a role model, but more accurately a sounding board, for questions about methods of analysis and communication of results, 2) a source of perspective, encouragement, and motivation leading to greater self-confidence and esteem. Help in establishing professional development plans, career goals and acceleration of their achievement; and 3) a source of professional/social contacts with other applied statisticians in the field - "plugs you into the power network". The mentoring program may answer important questions including: How do you create opportunities for yourself? How do you promote yourself? How do you network with others? How did you get to where you want to be?

The WSS Mentoring Program committee hosted a mentoring workshop in November 2021 to introduce the program and encourage people to participate in the program. The recording of the workshop can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyE-eKjaBCU.

How does the WSS Mentoring Program work?

If you are an interested WSS or GSS member (or potential member), simply complete an application and information form which can be found on the WSS website, WashStat.org/mentoring/, and select your desired role during registration. The information will be used to match you to a mentor, taking into account each stage of career, area of statistical expertise, and goals for mentoring. After matching, emails will be sent out to mentors and mentees to introduce them to each other. Program materials will be provided to help guide the mentors and mentees through potential conversations, although the topics discussed are up to the mentor and mentees themselves. The program will continue through the correspondence between the mentor and mentee for at least six months into the late Spring of 2025. Those in the program will meet at least monthly either on the phone, on video chat, or face-to-face. Participants will be asked to complete a short evaluation survey at the end of that period to learn and improve on the program. We encourage mentors and mentees to continue to meet after the formal program period ends if it is mutually productive.

The direct signup link is: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8yqebWtJLplewxdK-aTVRSL9VNwvOWwIi5T6kuqxXDzdCEg/viewform

You can find more information from the following resources:

The WSS website: https://washstat.org/mentoring/

The GSS mentoring website: https://community.amstat.org/governmentstatisticssection/professionaldevelopmentmentoring/mentoring

If you are interested, but have questions about the program, contact one of the committee members: