J-Fall 2022: Kelly Jille – Be ‘Mr. Miyagi’ or find one! A talk about the power of mentoring

Mr. Who? Besides one of my childhood heroes, Mr. Miyagi is a fictional karate master from Okinawa, Japan, in the movie serie ‘The Karate Kid’. He was the karate mentor of several people and made them worthy champions. I wanted that too! So began my own karate journey with my own sensei (mentor). Later, I became a lawyer and got a so-called ‘patroon’ (another mentor). Both mentoring relationships have paid off. When I took my first steps in my career switch to the IT world, I discovered that mentorship is not a vgiven. What a pity! Fortunately, I managed to find a mentor again. I experienced it as a difference as night and day. I would like to talk about the mentorship’s ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’. I would also like to explain the importance of mentorship in our field and what it could offer us as a community. In doing so, I would like to share my own experiences and ideas. To add weight to it, I make a link with research. I have looked at whether I can find my own experiences and ideas back in society, science or both. I think that we as a community, but also as an employer and client, should not want anything else and I would like to explain why. After this talk, you’ll understand the power of mentoring and how you can make a difference yourself!