A Mentor To Go Story of Impact: Sruthi Ganesan and Kavya S.R
By: Shruthilayaa Sasidharan
Tags: Mentorship, Mentoring Matters, Mentorship Program, Virtual Mentoring, Mentoring

Background:

Sruthi Ganesan works as the Chief of Staff, Country Manager Office in Western Digital India. She has been volunteering with Mentor Together since 2015. She learned about Mentor Together first through IBM.

Kavya is a student of Computer Science Engineering at UVCE, Bangalore.. She learned about the program through our partnership with her college.

What motivated you to join the program?

Sruthi: “I had been a mentor in Mentor Together from 2015–2017 in the in-person ‘Life skills’ mentoring program. I believe in the purpose of mentoring because I could really see the difference that one can make in someone’s life. My first mentee, Princy, and I had come a long way from where we had begun. It was really fulfilling in terms of understanding her dreams, aspirations, inhibitions and guiding her in some way. Around the same time, Mentor Together had begun the creation of digital content of the mentor training modules wherein I featured in the demonstration role-plays and also provided feedback on the designs for the app.

When I joined Western Digital in 2019, it was almost serendipitous that the Mentor To Go program was launched in my company. I jumped at the opportunity to take up another mentorship. With my second mentee, Kavya, it was a completely different experience because the mentoring was completely virtual and focused on various aspects of work readiness. Since we are both from a Computer Science background, we could relate with each other and bonded over coding among other conversations that we have had.”

Kavya: “The Mentor To Go team came to my college and they spoke about the program and how helpful it is for students. I joined because my friends were joining! I realise now that I’m glad I joined it because it turned out to be really useful”.

What were your initial expectations?

Sruthi: “The first time I started volunteering, I had some expectations about how much I could contribute — what am I supposed to teach my mentee or talk to her about. Now, I have come to realize that it takes time to learn and grow with the mentorship journey. No matter what your initial expectations are, until the mentee really trusts you and starts openly communicating, I don’t think mentorship can go forward. At a fundamental level, it is about how well you both connect.”

Kavya — “I didn’t expect anything in the beginning. I didn’t know many things about a career, work skills, my subjects and its practical uses. I could understand over time in the program how important all of these are.”

Share about your experience on using the app (its features)

Sruthi — “I prefer the older version of Mentor To Go app as it was more structured in terms of session completion. The shift to the newer version was not hard but it grows on you with time. The initial few meetings were difficult to schedule but we managed to progress and completed the mandatory and DIY modules.”

Kavya — “It was not difficult to understand, it was easy for me. The sections where we have to give answers, We talk about that in our call and Sruthi used to correct me if my answers were incorrect.”

About your mentor/mentee and your mentoring journey:

Sruthi: “It has been a very interesting journey. Initially, when we connected, Kavya used to call me Sruthi Ma’am, and it was very formal. I used to tell her: “No, not ma’am, call me Sruthi”. We were off to a slow start, owing to our time schedules. Kavya also wasn’t very comfortable to share anything unless I used to say, “tell me more”. It took time. But that’s how most relationships are. You need to build trust and make the other person feel comfortable. Eventually, after 3–4 months, we developed such a great vibe — we used to share paintings, videos and sketches. During the lockdown period in 2020, when we had gone back to our hometown, I used to check on her, how her family is and if everyone was doing fine. In spite of being in different cities, we were connected much more than before.

As a mentee, Kavya is wonderful. No matter what topic we would discuss, she used to diligently work on it further. In one of our calls, I had suggested some courses on this app called Solo learn, as she was done with her exams. In the next call, she showed me certificates of courses that she had done from that app. She is absolutely committed and dedicated towards learning new things.”

“When our mentorship got over, Kavya said that we should do something together. And we were in different cities by this time also. So I did the doodle to celebrate our mentorship journey together!”

Kavya: “Sruthi is such an amazing person. She is one of the inspirations in my life. She helped me with everything: in my subjects if there’s something I don’t understand in Mentor To Go. I’ll just ask her and she’ll help me understand everything clearly. I like sketching, so I share my drawings. She doesn’t know about agriculture, so I talked to her about it.”

What has been the focus of your mentorship and how did you and your partner work together?

Sruthi: “I think the curriculum was helpful: how you should manage things in a workplace, how to control your emotions, how you go about working in a team, how to write a cover letter etc. Apart from that we also covered some technical skills — visualizing how the code works and how the output gets generated in different programming languages. I believe it all culminated towards the end, we could create that resume and a mock interview based on her strengths, interests and values. I’m not able to put it under one umbrella, but we could connect the dots and integrate it all.”

Kavya: “I wanted to learn about different companies, how to behave in a workspace, technical skills and communication skills. At first, I didn’t fully understand how I would learn these things, but with time as I went through the sessions, and cleared my doubts in the discussions, I can see how much I’ve progressed. I’m still working on all these goals. My interest in mentorship increased because of Sruthi. Whatever doubts I have, she explained everything clearly. Because of her, I got more interested and believed in mentorship.”

Share the best moments in your mentorship

Sruthi — “There are many along the way actually. She is a person who takes note of even the smallest of detail and remembers the significance of it. I saw a whole different side to her during our conversations towards the end of the mentorship. She is very mature and has the ability to put herself in my shoes. She used to enquire my well-being, work and family. She used to explain to me about crop rotation, farming techniques and harvesting when I ask about her day. Despite the hardships she faces, she empathizes with others. That’s a gift to have at such a young age!”

Kavya — “The mock interview we had was very good. It was my best moment. I had to make a video where I’m introducing myself. I made some mistakes and she corrected me. Then when we got on the call, we normally said hi how are you, but that day she started talking like an interviewer. I first didn’t understand why she was suddenly talking like this. That was my most favourite session.”

What do you suggest to a mentee or mentor starting the program?

Sruthi -“Be more open-minded, for you never know how it is going to evolve. Each conversation is like a building block of mentorship, so go with the flow and create a monument!

For mentors who are starting the program, if you have signed up for it, make sure you really invest your time and energy. It takes consistent efforts and utmost dedication to make it a meaningful one.”

Kavya — “I’d suggest to mentees that they should take up the program. In the beginning, I didn’t know much about Mentor To Go. I was in the first year, new to college. I joined just like that. But then I got the best mentor through that chance by joining!”