The first email invitations to potential mentors for the first SEED
term in Europe just went out. 19 out of the invitations went to the highest
priority name on a SEED participant’s Mentor Wish List (61%). 9 more went
to the second name on a SEED’s Mentor Wish List (29%). The remaining 10%
went to a lower priority name. Sometimes we could not use the highest priority
name because there were duplicate requests, sometimes because the mentor
is already known to be unavailable.
We are asking 4 long-time SEED mentors to consider taking an
additional mentee even though they already have one or more current
SEED partnership. 10 of the mentors to whom I just sent invitations are
new to the SEED program but all the others have been SEED mentors at least once.
Surprisingly, even though all of the SEED participants are in Europe
(Dublin, Grenoble, Hamburg, or Prague), only one of the mentors I contacted
today works in Europe all the time, one works there sometimes, and one
is based in Canada. All the rest are USA-based.
It will take six to eight weeks to match everyone in this term. I hope to
finish matching all of them before I leave for Russia to talk to the next
group of potential SEED participants in mid-January. We have already heard
back from one potential mentor who expressed interest and will follow up with
the SEED who requested him.
I just faxed 9 pages of forms to the Sun administrator in St. Petersburg who
is helping me get my visa. Let’s hope that is enough!
KatysBlog 