I am in my eighth semester studying Faculty of Industrial Engineering and am taking part in this year's mentoring program "Taking the Lead as a Woman", which is being offered for the first time by Faculty 09 in cooperation with the Equal Opportunities Department, Leading Ladies In Town and Unternehmerschaft Niederrhein.

After the information event in September, the application process began, in which we were able to work out and present our personal concerns and topics for the program.

The introductory event for us mentees then took place in January. There we were able to get to know each other and define and record our individual key questions that we would like to answer through the project. The key questions we developed revolved around various topics, such as career entry, decision-making and self-presentation.

At the kick-off event, the mentees were finally able to meet their individually selected mentors, who will be at our side over the next few months and support us with their experience as managers.

As my mentor was unable to attend the kick-off event due to illness, I got to know him later in an online meeting. We exchanged ideas and talked about the topics that were on my mind during the program. A few weeks later, we met in person when I was able to visit my mentor at the company. After a long conversation, we toured the company premises so that I could get a better insight into the company. To round off the meeting, we had lunch together in the company canteen and discussed the next steps.

I'm now looking forward to continuing to work together in tandem and to the workshops for the mentees, which are also offered on a monthly basis. I am excited to see where the journey will take us over the next few months and what results we will achieve at the end of the program.