Professional Mentoring at USI with Business Professional Women - Elena Bonfiglio

A series of testimonies from female students who participated in the first Professional Mentoring programme offered by USI in collaboration with the Business Professional Women (BPW) association. The project is part of USI's 25th anniversary, which is also an opportunity to reaffirm what we as a university hold dear. One of the strands of the anniversary is "USI is U", dedicated to underlining - among other things - our values and the goals we set, including that of consolidating our commitment to equal opportunities.

Elena Bonfiglio is a USI Master in Economics and International Policies student and chose to participate in the first Professional Mentoring programme to look for support and advice in view of her transition into the world of work. The change from school to professional life represents a critical transition, especially for women. Elena established an excellent relationship with her Mentor. She was able to create a network of contacts with professionals and students who took part in the project.

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// From the autumn semester 2020/2021, for the first time, female students attending the second year of USI's Master programmes were offered a Professional Mentoring programme, carried out in collaboration with the Career Service, the Equal Opportunities Service, the BPW (Business Professional Women) Association and in co-operation with the Directors of the Masters. Professional Mentoring's objective is to ease the entry of USI undergraduates into the world of work through targeted and individual professional counselling.
Professional Mentoring is carried out, over six months, by a selected group of professionals (Mentors) from BPW network who, voluntarily, offer professional counselling to female students in their second year of Master at USI (Mentee) based on an individual match (Mentor/Mentee).
For the first academic year (2020/21), the professional Mentoring service has given priority to female students of the Masters in Finance and Informatics. Still, because of the positive feedback, students from other Master programmes could also benefit from it, for a total of 28 students.
The BPW presentation is available at this link Professional Mentoring USI/BPW.
The list of Mentees is available here.