HCI Mentoring Circle

The HCI Mentoring Circle describes an informal mentoring program for women in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It complements JMU's formal offerings specific to the field of HCI and includes high school student interns, undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors. Scientific studies show that the effects of informal mentoring programs are sustained and effective on career development and psychological functioning (Ragins & Kram, 2007). Moreover, women benefit from informal mentoring (Ragins & Cotton, 1999). The basis for the positive effects is trusting ongoing relationship building and a shared history. Based on these findings, Carolus and Wienrich build a mutual support structure between different status groups. The goal is to understand the individual status groups as links in an interlocking "mentoring chain" and to link them with one another to strengthen cooperation between women in HCI and sustainably increase the proportion of women and create a trusting team atmosphere.