Mentoring program

The Mentoring Programme is, apart from financial support and a chance for internship at Intel in Poland or USA, an integral part of the Grant Package for the grant recipients in “New Technologies for Girls.” A very important part, as it allows them to develop their knowledge and skills related to the ICT world and create strategy for building their future careers.

The recipients enter into an 8-months individual relationship with one of the Intel employees specialising in issues related to new technologies. The goal is this relationship is their development – both professional and personal.

The Mentors are selected by the recipients before the start of the programme and the mentoring process starts with a personal meeting of the mentoring pairs and working out joint goals and the strategy to achieve them.

The mentoring programme is an incredible opportunity to draw inspiration and knowledge from wonderful people. Thanks to my mentor, after each meeting I become a better version of myself, I realise what my strong points are, I feel myself spreading my wings and become more and more convinced that there are no impossible obstacles for me. Mieszko makes me realise that I can achieve great things in the future and reach great success. I wait impatiently for each meeting, from which I can come out with the greatest dose of knowledge and new skills that I will use in my professional career and in my private life :)

Weronika Król, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Mieszko Dropiński)

For me mentoring is a signpost towards success – it allows me to find my direction, helps me in self-realisation and drives me to undertake challenges.

- Anna Janowska, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Monika Żyra).

My mentor showed me how to “sell” my knowledge, how to present my skills. At a technical university we do not learn communication, time management – thanks to my mentor I filled those gaps

- Anna Ścierska, participant in the 5th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Nino Piątkowska)

At the start of the mentoring programme, I did not know what type of projects I would like to work on and I made the most important choices of my career on the go, by elimination or persuasion from others. Thanks to Wojtek I started to believe in myself more and consider new possibilities, thinking about their impact on my career. Our weekly meetings allowed me to understand the realities of work in the industry, opened up my horizons and taught me to make conscious decisions.

- Małgorzata Wachulec, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Wojtek Ulatowski)

We understand each other very well with Laurence, although we communicate in English all the time. Thanks to working with a mentor and active participation in a student organisation, I am more and more open to people. Laurence supports me in learning programming and creating a robot, and he advises me on shaping my professional path.

- Julia Strasser, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Laurence de Burgh)

The mentoring programme allowed me to understand which way I would actually like to develop and what to strive for. During work on my projects and when making decisions important for my career and education, I felt great support from my mentor, who always knew how to show me another perspective.

- Laura Wrońska, participant in the 5th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Ola Skibowska)

Participation in the "New Technologies for Girls" mentoring programme is a great chance to develop one’s skills, both technical and soft. Working with a mentor puts me closer to achieving my goals, adds motivation and allows me to expand my horizons. My mentor gives me courage and belief in myself and my abilities.

- Małgorzata Madej, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Szymon Borkowski)

Participation in the mentoring programme was my coolest adventure during university. First of all, thanks to the grant I bought a decent laptop, which is necessary for developing technical skills. The programme gave me an opportunity to meet interesting people and to participate in many valuable classes, focusing on technical and soft skills. Mentoring allowed to me to work systematically with Michał Łukaszewski on the goals set in the beginning. They become a lot easier to achieve if someone with a lot more experience can direct you and share their knowledge. No one can give you more on-point advice than a person who is at the place in their career where you want to be in several years.

- Paulina Paluch, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Michał Łukaszewski)

My mentor is my friend. Thanks to my friend I have gained more self-assurance and I discovered which way I should develop.

- Aleksandra Kukawka, participant in the 6th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Sylwia Wnuczko).

First of all, she helped me to formulate my plans for the nearest future – she encouraged and supported me in my efforts to go to UK for MA studies, but she also showed me alternative ways. Despite many obstacles, mostly the pandemic and Brexit, I managed to achieve my main goal during our cooperation :) I was happy to have the support of a person who knows both the tech world and the business world, and also has experience with mentoring herself, and she could lead me through the difficult moment of making the decision after achieving the title of engineer.

- Aleksandra Marciniak, participant in the 5th edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Agnieszka Orłowska).

I remember myself over 10 years ago starting my first job after graduation, not knowing what to expect and most importantly how I can add value. Mentoring Program can help preparing students to start their careers strongly and consciously. Having business and R&D experience we can help our great knowledgeable and ambitious students to have easier, better and more effective start of their careers and in the result - achieve more than we do

- Mentor Mieszko Dropiński

It was great experience! I had an opportunity to practice my mentoring skills and what a pleasure to see outcome of this effort when a mentee was growing and overcoming challenges. But the best for me during mentoring program was to learn from mentee, heard diverse opinions and different perspectives.

- Mentor Anna Kukushkina

The Intel mentoring programme is, most of all, great support in dealing with challenges. Many times, my doubts about choosing the career path were settled thanks to conversation with my mentor. Thanks to her, I took to studying the ICT area deeply.

Thanks to the grant programme I believed that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. I got seriously engaged in academic projects. If it wasn’t for the adventure started in October 2015, I would have never found the courage to dive in deep in my first year of studies.

My work with my mentor is always in very friendly atmosphere. We maintain constant contact, once a month we meet on Skype. To me, this is invaluable help, not just in gaining IT knowledge, but also because of the support typical for mentoring – in personal development. Marysia is a wonderful person, from whom I have learned, among other things, to believe in my own abilities, to have courage in making decisions and to be a good team leader.

Joanna Maraszek, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls,” (Mentor: Marysia Zakidalska)

Marysia gave me motivation to mobilise each day and work steadily towards achieving the set goals. My relationship with my Mentor allowed me to give order to my day. Thanks to this I can do more than before and I always find time for myself. It sounds prosaic, but to me these are milestones. If the grant has a given value, the related mentoring is priceless.

Anna Świtała, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Marysia Zakidalska)

New Technologies for Girls is a programme that enables development in many ways – not just the mentees, but also the mentors:-). I get great satisfaction from participating in the programme, but it also enables me to see problems from a new perspective, to work on my empathy and discipline. Another important thing is to promote the idea of mentoring: admitting to some lack of knowledge gives incredible chance for development and finding answers one could not find alone.

Alan Turower, mentor in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme

The biggest challenge for a mentor is how to transfer knowledge in a non-intrusive way, to demonstrate possibilities instead of leading by the hand. The grant recipients are aware of their talent and skills, the mentor’s objective is to find the areas where they can find fulfilment and to accompany them on their development journey. Watching the progress of my mentee gives me a lot of satisfaction as a mentor.

Jakub Mamelski, mentor in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme (Mentee: Magdalena Zaporska)

Mentoring is a great thing for a high school senior, you go to the university with some plan for the future, and the Mentor is a person who helps you realise than plan, with their experience. This happens on many levels, by gaining practical skills, e.g., when creating a project, like in my case, but also by bringing up less technical subjects, such as planning further career path, or the possibility to see what work in the IT industry really looks like.

Zuzanna Śmiech, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Maciej Kopański)

Intel’s mentoring is a great adventure in the IT world, great motivation to act and help in developing a project – thanks to the programme I could focus on creating my computer game, while the mentor willingly gave all the answers and dissipated my doubts. Thanks to his great technical knowledge and as excellent soft skills, my mentor introduced me to the world of computer graphics and helped me to improve my code.

- Kasia Frąckowiak, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Paweł Łapiński)

The NNTD mentoring programme was my mobilisation to constantly take up new challenges. Thanks to meetings with my mentor over Skype I can polish my IT skills, but also share new ideas, insights, plan and execute projects.

Anna Oślizło, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Dawid Szmidka)

Mentoring in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme allowed me to believe in myself and my abilities. Additionally, my mentor helped me in planning my career path and gave me some valuable tips that helped me choose my speciality at university.

Kasia Wolska, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Marta Muszyńska)

The mentoring programme is, most of all, a chance for personal development and expanding one’s horizons. It is an incredible experience, thanks to which I am fulfilling my science plans and developing my competencies (both the hard and soft ones). Together with my mentor – Michał Kowalik, we make a good team. We are working on a design for a robot, we talk about subjects related to the business world and we always both learn something from each other.

Monika Zielińska, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Michał Kowalik)

The goal of my cooperation with my mentor is to plan the activities related to my Master’s thesis and its defence. I have a habit of leaving everything until the last moment and working with a mentor is teaching me how important it is to plan and to strove to achieve the set goals according to plan. I have managed to plan with some serious advance the subsequent stages, thanks to which I have the time to prepare as best as possible. A mentor to me is someone who can also advise with difficult choices. His help is invaluable.

Paulina Woźniak, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Piotr Majchrzak)

I am preparing my first Artificial Intelligence app and a website. My mentor is providing valuable programming tips, recommending materials for learning, and even evaluating the code I write. Thanks to working with the mentor, I am discovering the secrets of project management and its organisation, and also how to lead a team. We are also creating my personal development plan.

Agnieszka Bielak, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentors: Jarosław Szmigielski, Krzysztof Turek)

Mentoring is invaluable help in making choices concerning development and professional or scientific career. Thanks to working with the mentor, I have a chance to confront my ideas and defining difficulty – Michał Łukaszewski’s experience and advice are very helpful. We are working on expanding my project management skills. Interesting IT subjects also appear during each meeting.

Beata Szturemska, participant in the 2nd edition of "New Technologies for Girls" (Mentor: Michał Łukaszewski)

The mentoring programme is invaluable help to me in making decisions in the early stages of my career. I received many useful tips – how to develop my technical skills, how to plan further career path, how to prepare for job interviews. I also got to know completely new to me areas: cryptography and IT security, in which my mentor specialises. We started work on a joint technical project.

Natalia Wochtman, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Krystian Matusiewicz)

Mentoring in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme to me is most of all a chance to discover and expand my technical and soft skills. Thanks to regular discussions with my mentor, who inspires and motivates me, I can see my work from another perspective, and I can better define and achieve new goals.

Martyna Wiśniewska, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Michał Grodzicki)

I am working on a Java application with my mentor. Thanks to our meetings I have a chance to improve my technical skills and programming expertise. Frequent contact and support from my mentor are a great motivation to further development.

Joanna Sendorek, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Alan Turower)

At the beginning of the mentoring programme, I mostly wanted to work on programming, self-presentation and improvisation. Participation in the programme allows me to work on those goals, but that is not all, my mentor also gives me a lot of useful information about work in IT. Additionally, I like to travel, so conversations with my mentor about cooperation with different countries are very valuable to me. I learned a lot of interesting things about how different career development may be depending on the country and culture one works in.

Agata Zdunek, participant in the 2nd edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Paweł Noga)

To me the mentoring programme means, most of all, the possibility to develop on multiple levels. For 8 months, under the care of my mentor, I have been improving my skills in Cloud Computing, as well as managerial, that I use in my daily work. During the 3-month internship in Intel HQ in the US I will be able to focus on creating systems supporting BigData analysis using the Scala language.

Estera Kot, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Paweł Koniszewski)

I decided to become a mentor in the Intel grant programme for girls because I have always felt an inner need to share my knowledge and experience with others. Engagement in being a mentor

On one hand it is a big responsibility, on the other it is a very developing adventure. A mentor must, most of all, listen and react to small signals from the mentee – maybe too much information is being given at once?

Is the speed right? A mentor needs to monitor the process and the proper work towards achieving goals. The programme teaches discipline to both sides, proper planning and choosing priorities. As a mentor I always looked forward impatiently

to the next meeting with my mentee, I enjoyed them all the more, as I could see the real results of our work and the goals achieved one by one. I believe this is one of the most important experiences in my professional life

Marcin Makowski, mentor in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme

Being a mentor is very important to me, as few years ago I myself needed some tips as to which way to develop and what to focus on. I believe the programme gives young women not just a prize in the form of a grant or internship, but also prepares them for their future careers. It is also good that it promotes the idea of mentoring and the participants will probably become mentors themselves.

Alicja Borzyszkowska, mentor in the “New Technologies for Girls” programme

NTDD is a unique opportunity to meet incredible people, it mobilises for further activities and helps to find one’s way in the new technologies world. Thanks to working with Intel I found out what work in the IT industry looks like. The Mentoring Programme allowed me to spread my wings and turned out to be invaluable support in making decisions concerning my further career.

Weronika Łajewska, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Filip Zakrzewski)

The NTDD programme allowed me first of all, to believe in myself and my ability to be successful on the job market. My mentor, to whom I am very grateful, encouraged me to start working and to gain valuable experience and she came up with many cool, developing exercises.

Aleksandra Kobus, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Asia Taryma)

Thanks to NTDD I had a chance to work with a mentor whose knowledge and skills helped me to get to know the subject of new technologies and to start work on new projects.

Joanna Muniak, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Agnieszka Bielawska)

For me the programme is, most of all, a huge chance – I have received more than mentoring and the grant – despite my lack of professional experience I have been treated seriously, as a person worth supporting and actively helping.

Beata Szeląg, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Jarosław Szmigielski)

The programme showed me that there is room also for women in the new tech and IT industry. My work with my mentor is excellent, with no difficulties. I gain knowledge from him that I could not find anywhere else.

Ola Karolak, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Łukasz Malinowski)

Participation in the mentoring programme allowed me to believe in my own abilities. I understood that my skills really mean a lot and I should not be afraid to use them. Thanks to the support from my mentor and her valuable advice it will be easier to start my career in the IT industry. I have also learned that women may successfully find their place in a job usually associated with men.

Karolina Malanowska, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Katarzyna Szymków)
Participation in the programme allowed me to get to know the technologies that support app creation and to notice the need for proper design and testing of a system. Thanks to my mentor I have also learned about the architecture templates used and the rules for programming.
Maria Matuszek, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Michał Łukaszewski)

The programme very efficiently filled out the gap in grant and development programmes for young people. The available programmes required the status of a high school or university student (usually in senior years). Thanks to the unique formula based on mentoring, the programme addresses the needs of participants on individual level.

Paulina Tomaszewska, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Jacek Jeniecki)

Thanks to participation new perspectives opened for me – the possibility to participate in paid classes and training, to purchase educational supplies and to expand my technical library. Mentoring is a great help at the start of your career – I gain motivation, more faith in my own abilities, and I learn how to find science inspirations and take full advantage of them.

Anna Pietruszewska, participant in the 1st edition of “New Technologies for Girls” (Mentor: Agnieszka Garwolińska)