Mentoring for Talent Development: Global Talent Mentoring as a Cutting-Edge Example

Abstract

When asked about their earlier talent development paths, eminent experts have at least one thing in common. they almost always describe having had various kinds of mentors during their talent development. Investigations of such reports have revealed that mentoring relationships are crucial as individuals traverse the often long, arduous pathways from novice to eminent expert within a talent domain. Research has also revealed that different types of mentoring experiences are crucial at different times across this trajectory. Moreover, research gives insight into important aspects of effective mentoring for talent development. Yet, oftentimes the hallmarks of effective mentoring for talent development are not implemented in programs. Engaging a research team at the University of Regensburg, in Germany, the Hamdan Foundation has made possible the creation of Global Talent Mentoring, a research-based online mentoring program in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the medical sciences (STEMM) for some of the world’s most outstanding and highly motivated youths and young adults. In the presentation, the research-based approach taken to mentoring for talent development by Global Talent Mentoring will be presented, and the audience will discover the potential of a carefully designed and implemented online mentoring program to help our most outstanding youths to grow their enthusiasm and early successes in a STEMM domain into transformative excellence in STEMM that can improve their lives and the prospects of humanity.