The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Mentoring Program provides a professional, educational and personal support system for new Extension professionals through the assignment of a designated Mentor.

Goals of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Mentoring Program:

• Connect mentee with a peer mentor in a similar role to better understand their role within the county, state
• Encourage and challenge new employees to develop both personally and professionally
• Foster mentoring relationships that are mutually beneficial to the mentee AND the mentor
• And ultimately: Help new employees feel a sense of belonging within N.C. Cooperative Extension

Employees with three or more years of experience are nominated by the District Extension Director/Regional Extension Director (DED/RED) and their CED to be a Mentor. Mentors will be invited to attend in-person district level training in the early spring of each year. New hires will be paired with a Mentor based several factors, including but not limited to subject matter, programmatic area and physical location. Mentees will receive an invitation to register for the Mentoring Program Overview Training, which is offered on the second Wednesday of every month.Mentors and Mentees should review the Mentoring Program resources before meeting for the first time.

Mentoring Program Resources

• Encouraging Mentor 12 Conversation Guides
• Ideas for Staying Engaged with your Mentor/Mentee
• Mentor Role Description

Use one of the Encouraging Mentor Conversation Guides to kick off each mentoring session. Once you've talked through the questions on the conversation guide, review topics the mentee would like the mentor's help with. Below are lists of suggested topics you may wish to cover in your mentoring sessions:

• Suggested topics for agent and PA mentors and mentees
• Suggested topics for CED mentors and mentees
• Suggested topics for Admin mentors and mentees