FemPhys, a student club under the department of Physics and Astronomy, hosts a yearly Mentoring Night which is one of the well-known events of the club that students and mentors both look forward to. Held in the Winter term of every year, it is an event that focuses on creating a space for undergraduate students to mingle with mentors in Physics and other STEM fields across academia, industry, and teaching! The event, held in a speed-networking format, allows students to circle around and meet multiple mentors during the event. This event aims to demystify the fields to students and provides an active networking opportunity for them.
This event also focuses on underrepresented groups in Physics and specifically highlights mentors of those groups to ensure that students can see themselves in these positions in the future, regardless of their background. One of the goals of this event is to break the historical image of what it means to be successful in these fields by showing students real, incredible, mentors from all around the world, with a focus on women and non-binary professionals.
This year's Mentoring Night was a huge success, held at the Institute of Quantum Computing with an estimated 55 people at the event, creating a 3:1 mentee to mentor ratio, leading to great discussions. The mentors ranged from researchers, professors, specialists in industry, and students (MSc and PhD). There was also a variety of fields in Physics, from condensed matter to quantum computing, and even some pure mathematics. Some of the questions asked were "What advice can you give a student who is struggling in their courses?”, "How can we go about making sure our supervisor is a good fit for us?”, and "How can I get into research while being financially stable?". Whether it was questions about graduate school, funding your learning, or even just how to get through your classes, the Mentoring Night left mentees with lots of great advice. Some memorable pieces of advice were that you should reach out to students who work under a supervisor you're interested to learn more about the work culture and experiences there (Sonell Malik), and ensuring to look into external opportunities and scholarships for funding your education (Urja Nandivada).
Here are some of the photos from this years’ event!
As a throwback, do you remember attending one of our Mentoring Nights when you attended UWaterloo? We have photos dating back many years, with one of our largest Mentoring Nights taking place at Perimeter Institute in 2018, within their Black Hole Bistro! Here are some photos to see if it jogs a few memories! Feel free to reach out to Science Advancement if you recognize yourself or any of your alumni!
You can keep up with FemPhys and their other events on their instagram @femphys or reach out to them at femphys@gmail.com!
