Mentors
UCalgary's Global Community Challenge YYC is returning for the fifth year for our Fall 2024 challenge round!
Applications open late August and are due Sept 23. Connect with a diverse group of students and help foster the next generation of community leaders.
Benefits of being a mentor
-
Expand your UCalgary network
-
Participate in a variety of free training on topics like ideation, cross-cultural communication, and teamwork
-
Give back to the campus community
-
Develop and hone your leadership and coaching skills
-
Work with staff and students from across campus and around the world
Mentorship commitment and expectations
As a mentor, it is expected that you will:
- Attend the mentor training session on September 27.
- Meet for a total of 6-8 hours during the time span of the challenge from late September to November 2024 via zoom
- We estimate 3-4 meetings (approximately 1.5 hours each)
- 1 initial meeting for introductions and brainstorming
- 1 meeting to finalize narrowing down problem scope and ideas for solutions
- 1-2 meetings for follow up and finalizing ideas
- We estimate 3-4 meetings (approximately 1.5 hours each)
- Provide guidance to your student group in narrowing down ideas for their solution
- Respond to students’ emails within 3 business days
In case of any questions or issues, please contact us at global.challenge@ucalgary.ca.
You are also invited, encouraged even, to attend the workshops that are mandatory for your students as well as the first and second rounds of competition. For more details and tentative dates, please see the schedule below.
Support for mentors
We will have weekly drop in hours for mentors to check-in with our team. Bring your questions, concerns, strategies, and anything else you want to talk to our coordinators about. More details will be sent via email once you have been accepted.
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
Expectations of students
Mentoring students through this challenge will be a very unique experience for all parties involved. It's a good idea to get an understanding of the expectations we have for students in advance to guide your feedback. Check out the Student section of our website to get an understanding of our expectations of students as well as the judging criteria for the actual competition.
Challenge Timeline
This is the tentative schedule for our Fall 2024 challenge and is subject to change.
Aug. 26, 2024
Student and Mentor applications open
Sept. 9, 2024
First Information session for students from international partner schools (Europe, Americas)
10-11am on zoom
Sept. 9, 2024
Second Information session for students from international partner schools (Asia/Pacific, Americas)
5-6pm on zoom
Sept. 10, 2024
Information session for students from UCalgary
Noon - 1pm in the Life Design Hub (MSC 171)
Sept. 19, 2024
Application deadline for students
Cutoff to apply: 11:59 PM
Sept. 23, 2024
Mentor application deadline
Sept. 24, 2024
Mentor acceptances announced via email
Sept. 27, 2024
Mentor training session
More details to be sent out via email to accepted mentors
From noon - 1pm.
Oct. 1, 2024
Student acceptances announced via email
Please be advised: due to limited capacity, we will only email candidates who have been selected. Thank you for your understanding.
Oct. 7, 2024
Workshop #1: Challenge Kickoff and Introduction
Details to be sent out via email to accepted students
Oct.
Workshop #2: Innovating for Impactful Projects (2024 Date TBA)
Details to be sent out via email to accepted students
Oct.
Workshop #3: Introduction to Building Your Intercultural Capacity (2024 Dates TBA)
This workshop will be run at 2 separate times this week. Details to be sent out to accepted students
Oct.
Workshop #4: Building Intercultural Awareness (2024 Date TBA)
This workshop will be run at 2 separate times this week. Details to be sent out to accepted students
Nov.
Workshop #5: Building a Strong Team (2024 Date TBA)
This workshop will be run at 2 separate times this week. Details to be sent out to accepted students
Nov.
Workshop #6: Professional Applications of Challenge Work (Nov 4 and Nov 6, 2024)
Workshop #7: Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (Asynchronous, may be completed at any point during the challenge)
These workshops may be changed earlier, or be offered asynchronously as recorded presentations. Details to be sent out to accepted students
Nov. 12, 2024
Feedback Round: From November 12-18, students will have no workshops to attend, but are expected to touch base with their community partner and their assigned UCalgary feedback judge with a draft of their project to gather feedback before preparing their presentations.
Details to be sent out to accepted students
Nov. 21, 2024
Final Presentations: November 21 is the deadline for groups to submit their presentation materials. The final presentations, Q&A periods, and judging will be held at the end of the week.
More details coming soon
Nov. 28, 2024
Challenge finals
The top 5 teams will be announced, with presentation and Q&A with the judges.
Dec. 6, 2024
Deadline for all teams to have their handover meeting with their community partner and complete any remaining workshops/discussion prompts in D2L.